Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has pledged that the Scuderia will approach the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid with "full energy" and a renewed determination to recover from what he described as a "failure" at Monza. The Italian outfit entered their home race with high hopes, especially after both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc posted impressive lap times in Friday's practice sessions. Yet those expectations quickly evaporated when neither driver secured a front‑row start in qualifying, and the Sunday race turned into a disappointment for the Tifosi. The race unfolded dramatically.
Hamilton, who had qualified fourth, was forced into a side‑by‑side battle with Leclerc at the first chicane. The contact sent Hamilton off the track and into the gravel at Turn 2, a moment he later expressed frustration over. Leclerc’s misfortune was even more severe: on the third lap he suffered a high‑speed crash that demolished his car and left the Monegasque driver with temporary eye irritation.
Despite a brief surge to third place during the middle stages, Hamilton could not sustain the pace and ultimately finished sixth, trailing both Mercedes drivers, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the two McLaren entries. "We will go to Madrid with all the energy we need to achieve a good result," Vasseur said in the post‑race press conference. "Monza was, as I keep saying, a normal race for us, but it felt anything but that, especially with the Tifosi behind us. We wanted to give them a proper thank‑you for their passion and support.
We all feel we let them down, but rest assured we will come back much stronger." Ferrari has already introduced its second and final power‑unit upgrade of the season, yet the cars still lag behind the Mercedes‑powered rivals on the long straights. Straight‑line speed has been the team’s Achilles heel all year, a weakness that the twisty layout of the new Madrid circuit should mitigate. Vasseur admitted that he did not expect the upgrade to erase the power deficit entirely.
"When you lack pure horsepower, you start to play with ERS deployment to make up the shortfall on the straights," he explained. "But the more you use it in one area, the less you have available elsewhere, and that creates a negative spiral during a fight. In truth, it isn’t just about deployment.
Even McLaren was tweaking theirs on Friday and Saturday. The core issue remains a shortage of raw power." Earlier this year, after the first Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) review, the FIA determined that Ferrari’s engine was more than four percent slower than the benchmark set by Red Bull. This assessment gave Ferrari the right to introduce two upgrades this season and another set for the 2027 power‑unit, when the Scuderia will switch to a new engine supplier. "Engine development is a marathon, not a sprint," Vasseur noted.
"You can change the chassis overnight and see an immediate gain, but the engine takes months to evolve because of long lead times for parts and the constraints of the cost cap. Producing a new batch of engines is a major undertaking, and we cannot expect a dramatic leap from ADUO‑1 or ADUO‑2 alone.
We are taking incremental steps." He added that even a modest increase of a few horsepower can translate into a hundredth‑of‑a‑second advantage, which in turn can shift a driver up several grid positions. "Next year we will have a brand‑new engine, and our target is to close the gap as quickly as possible," Vasseur said. The schedule for the Spanish Grand Prix weekend is packed.
On Thursday, September 10, the drivers’ press conference will start at 2 pm, followed by the paddock uncut at 5 pm. Friday, September 11, features F3 practice at 8:50 am, F2 practice at 10 am, the first Spanish Grand Prix practice session at 12 pm (which actually begins at 11:30 pm local time), F2 qualifying at 12:55 pm, the team bosses’ press conference at 2:40 pm, a second practice session at 3 pm, F3 qualifying at 5:20 pm, and the F1 Show at 6:20 pm.
Saturday, September 12, includes the F3 sprint at 10 am, the third Grand Prix practice at 11 am (starting at 11:30 am), the F2 sprint at 1:10 pm, the build‑up to qualifying at 2:15 pm, the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying at 3 pm (with the official session at 3 pm), the F3 Feature Race 1 at 4:55 pm, and Ted’s Qualifying Notebook at 6 pm. Sunday, September 13, begins with the F3 Feature Race 2 at 8:40 am, the F2 Feature Race at 10:20 am, the Grand Prix build‑up at 12:30 pm, the main Spanish Grand Prix race at 2 pm, the chequered flag and post‑race reaction at 4 pm, and Ted’s Notebook at 5 pm. The qualifying session will also be shown on Sky Sports Main Event.
Formula 1 will travel to Madrid for the Spanish Grand Prix at the brand‑new Madring circuit, with every session broadcast live from Friday onward on Sky Sports F1. Viewers can stream the coverage via NOW, with no long‑term contract and the ability to cancel at any time. Ferrari hopes the change of scenery and a circuit that favours handling over outright speed will provide the platform they need to showcase the fruits of their recent upgrades and to begin repaying the loyalty of the passionate Tifosi.