Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has pledged that the Scuderia will arrive at the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid brimming with "all the energy" needed to rebound from what he described as a "failure" at Monza. The Italian marque entered its 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 were quickly dashed when neither driver secured a front‑row start in qualifying, and the race itself turned into a disappointment for the Tifosi. Hamilton’s race unfolded dramatically.
After a promising start, he found himself side‑by‑side with Leclerc at the first chicane. The contact forced Hamilton off the racing line and into the gravel at Turn 2, a moment he later expressed frustration about.
Meanwhile, Leclerc suffered a severe crash on the third lap, destroying his car and leaving the Monegasque driver with temporary eye irritation. Although Hamilton managed to climb back to third place at one stage, the lack of outright pace prevented him from challenging the leaders, and he ultimately crossed the line in sixth place, trailing both Mercedes cars, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and the two McLaren entries. Vasseur addressed the media after the race, saying, "We will come to Madrid with all the energy that we need to do a good result. It's true that Monza, for us, even if I spend the week to say that it's a normal race, it's not, as you can imagine.
With all the Tifosi, we were expecting to give them something else as a big thank you for the support and the enthusiasm that they have. We all have the feeling to have failed something, but be sure that we will come back much stronger." His comments underscored the disappointment felt by the team and its passionate fan base, while also signalling a clear intent to improve. One of the key technical issues highlighted at Monza was Ferrari's straight‑line speed deficit.
The team introduced its second and final engine upgrade of the season, yet the cars remained slower on the long straights compared with the Mercedes‑powered rivals. Vasseur explained that this shortfall would be less critical on the twisty, slower‑speed layout of the new Madring circuit, but he was not optimistic about fully closing the power‑unit gap to Mercedes in the short term. "When you have a lack of pure power, then you start to play with deployment to try to compensate in the straight line," he said.
"But if you deploy more somewhere, you will deploy less somewhere else. Then you are going in the wrong spiral to try to play with this when you are fighting.
Honestly, it's not about deployment. Even McLaren, they were playing a little bit Friday and Saturday morning.
In the end, we are missing pure power." Ferrari's engine development path has been constrained by the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) framework. After the first ADUO review earlier in the year, the FIA determined that Ferrari was more than four per cent off the benchmark set by Red Bull's power unit. This assessment allowed the Italian team to introduce two upgrades during the 2024 season and granted a further development window for the 2027 engine, when a new power unit will be introduced.
Vasseur highlighted the stark contrast between chassis and engine development timelines: "The process of the engine is mega long. The chassis you can make an upgrade from one day to the other very quickly and come back into the pace. On the engine, the process is mega long because the lead time of the parts is long and the cost cap is not easy – you have to produce the engine for the season.
If you want to start to do the development, you have to produce a new batch of engines. We are not expecting to recover with ADUO 1 or ADUO 2. We are doing small steps." He added that even marginal gains on the engine can translate into meaningful position changes on the grid.
"If you make a small step on the engine, keep in mind that behind us, it was hundredths of a second. In terms of position, even if you make a couple of horsepower, it's a good step on the grid. Now we will have a new engine next year.
For sure, the target is to catch up as soon as possible." Looking ahead, the Spanish Grand Prix weekend in Madrid promises a packed schedule. The event will feature three days of support series action, including F3 and F2 practice sessions, sprint races, and qualifying rounds, culminating in the main Formula 1 race on Sunday afternoon.
The new Madring circuit, designed to emphasize technical skill over outright power, could play to Ferrari's strengths and mitigate the straight‑line disadvantage that plagued them at Monza. Vasseur’s optimism suggests that the team will focus on extracting maximum performance from the current chassis, fine‑tuning aerodynamic balance, and optimizing energy‑deployment strategies to stay competitive. In summary, Ferrari left Monza with a clear sense of underachievement but also a renewed determination to bounce back. The combination of a fresh engine upgrade program, a more suitable circuit layout in Spain, and the team's relentless work ethic provides a solid foundation for a stronger showing.
Fans can expect the Scuderia to arrive in Madrid with a renewed sense of purpose, aiming to deliver a performance that both satisfies the Tifosi and narrows the gap to their Mercedes and Red Bull rivals.