Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur made it clear that the Scuderia will head to the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid this weekend with "all the energy" required to bounce back from what he described as a "failure" at Monza. The Italian outfit entered their home race with high hopes after both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc posted fast lap times in Friday practice, yet they failed to secure a front‑row start in qualifying and endured a lacklustre Sunday race. Hamilton, who started fourth, was forced down the order after a side‑by‑side battle with Leclerc at the first chicane.
The contact sent Hamilton into the gravel at Turn 2, a moment he later expressed frustration about. Leclerc, meanwhile, suffered a dramatic crash on lap three that completely destroyed his car and left the Monegasque driver with temporary eye irritation. Although Hamilton managed to climb back to third place at one stage, he never found the outright pace to challenge the leaders and ultimately finished sixth, trailing the two Mercedes drivers, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the two McLaren cars.
"We will arrive in Madrid with the full amount of energy we need to achieve a good result," Vasseur said in the post‑race press conference. "Monza was, for us, a race that I tried to downplay during the week, but it was anything but normal. With the Tifosi behind us, we felt we owed them a better performance as a thank‑you for their passion and support. We all feel we fell short, but rest assured we will come back much stronger." Ferrari introduced their second and final power‑unit upgrade of the season at Monza, yet the cars still lagged behind the Mercedes‑powered rivals on the long straights.
Straight‑line speed has been the team’s Achilles’ heel throughout the year, a shortcoming that should be less pronounced on the twisty, technical layout of the new Madrín circuit. Vasseur admitted he did not expect the upgrade to erase the power deficit to Mercedes.
"When you lack pure power you start to play with ERS deployment to try to make up the loss on the straights," he explained. "But the more you use it in one sector, the less you have available elsewhere, and that creates a negative spiral when you’re fighting wheel‑to‑wheel.
In truth, it isn’t just about deployment. Even McLaren were fiddling with their settings on Friday and Saturday. At the end of the day we are missing outright horsepower." Earlier in the season, after the first Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) review, Ferrari was found to be more than four per cent off the benchmark set by Red Bull’s power unit. That assessment granted the Scuderia the right to introduce two engine upgrades this year and another for the 2027 season, when a brand‑new power unit will be introduced.
"Engine development is a very long‑term process," Vasseur noted. "You can change a chassis overnight and see immediate gains, but an engine requires months of design, testing and production, especially under the cost‑cap restrictions.
You can’t simply produce a new batch of engines on a whim. The ADUO upgrades will bring incremental improvements, but they won’t close the gap instantly.
Even a few hundredths of a second per lap can translate into a few positions on the grid, and we are aiming to make those small steps now while preparing a completely new engine for next year." Looking ahead, the Spanish Grand Prix schedule is packed with support series and media events. The drivers’ press conference is set for Thursday, 2 p.m., followed by a paddock uncut at 5 p.m.
Friday’s programme includes F3 and F2 practice sessions, the first Spanish Grand Prix practice, qualifying for the junior categories, and the team‑bosses’ press conference. Saturday will feature the F3 sprint, the third practice session for the main race, the F2 sprint, and the crucial qualifying session that determines the grid for the Sunday race.
The Sunday agenda includes the F3 and F2 feature races, the build‑up to the Grand Prix, the race itself at 2 p.m., and post‑race analysis. The new Madrín circuit, built specifically for the Spanish Grand Prix, promises a different set of challenges compared to Monza’s high‑speed layout.
Its tighter corners and shorter straights should play to Ferrari’s strengths in handling and down‑force, potentially reducing the impact of their straight‑line deficit. Vasseur is optimistic that the team’s chassis upgrades, combined with a more suitable track, will allow the Scuderia to extract better performance and deliver the result the Tifosi expect. Fans can follow every session live on Sky Sports F1, with streaming available through NOW without a long‑term contract. The team hopes that the combination of fresh energy, a more suitable circuit, and incremental technical gains will enable Ferrari to turn the disappointment at Monza into a stepping stone toward a stronger finish to the season and a more competitive showing next year.