Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has promised that the Scuderia will head to the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid brimming with enthusiasm, determined to bounce back from what he described as a "failure" at their home race in Monza. The Italian outfit entered the Italian Grand Prix with high hopes, especially after both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc posted impressive lap times in Friday's practice sessions.
Yet the weekend quickly unraveled, beginning with a qualifying session that saw neither driver secure a front‑row start and culminating in a race that left the team and its passionate Tifosi feeling let down. During the race, Hamilton dropped from fourth place to tenth after a side‑by‑side battle with Leclerc at the first chicane, which forced Hamilton onto the gravel at Turn 2.
The incident left the British driver visibly frustrated. Leclerc’s woes were even more severe: on the third lap he suffered a high‑speed crash that not only destroyed his car but also caused him to experience temporary eye irritation.
Although Hamilton managed to climb back to third place for a period, he never found the outright pace needed to challenge the leaders and ultimately crossed the line in sixth place, trailing both Mercedes drivers, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the two McLaren cars. Vasseur summed up the mood in the paddock: "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 saying it was a normal race, it wasn't, 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 they have. We all feel we have failed, but be sure we will come back much stronger." His remarks underscored the disappointment felt by the team and its fans, but also highlighted a clear resolve to improve.
One of the technical issues that haunted Ferrari at Monza was a lack of straight‑line speed. The team introduced its second and final engine upgrade of the season, yet the cars still lagged behind the Mercedes‑powered rivals on the long straights that define the Italian circuit. Vasseur explained that this deficiency would be less pronounced on the twisty, slower‑speed layout of the new Madring circuit in Madrid, but he did not expect the upgrade to close the power‑unit gap entirely. "When you have a lack of pure power, you start to play with deployment to try to compensate on the straight," he said.
"But if you deploy more somewhere, you inevitably deploy less elsewhere, and you end up in a negative spiral. Honestly, it's not about deployment.
Even McLaren were fiddling with theirs on Friday and Saturday. In the end, we are missing pure power." Ferrari's engine woes are rooted in the regulatory framework governing power‑unit development. After the first Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) review earlier in the season, the FIA determined that Ferrari was more than four percent off the benchmark set by Red Bull.
This assessment granted Ferrari permission to introduce two engine upgrades during the current year and also earmarked a fresh power unit for the 2027 season, when the Scuderia will switch to a new supplier. Vasseur highlighted the long‑lead nature of engine development compared with chassis work.
"The chassis you can upgrade from one day to the next very quickly and get back into the pace," he noted. "The engine process is mega long because the lead time of the parts is long and the cost cap makes it difficult—you have to produce the engine for the whole season.
If you want to start development, you have to produce a new batch of engines. We are not expecting to recover with ADUO 1 or ADUO 2.
We are taking small steps. 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 a couple of extra horsepower is a good step on the grid. Next year we will have a new engine. The target is to catch up as soon as possible." Looking ahead, the Spanish Grand Prix offers Ferrari a chance to test their upgraded package on a circuit that rewards handling and aerodynamic efficiency more than raw horsepower. The Madring layout, with its tight corners and shorter straights, should allow the team to exploit the improvements made to the chassis and aerodynamic package while mitigating the straight‑line deficit that plagued them at Monza.
The event schedule is packed with support series and fan activities. On Thursday, September 10, a drivers' press conference will kick off the weekend at 2 p.m., followed by a paddock uncut session at 5 p.m. Friday brings F3 and F2 practice sessions in the morning, the first F1 practice at 12:30 p.m., and qualifying for the junior categories later in the day.
The team bosses' press conference is slated for 2:40 p.m., with the second F1 practice starting at 4 p.m. Saturday features the F3 sprint, the third F1 practice at 11:30 a.m., the F2 sprint, and the crucial Spanish Grand Prix qualifying in the early afternoon.
Sunday concludes with the F3 and F2 feature races, the main Grand Prix build‑up, the race itself at 2 p.m., and post‑race analysis. Fans can follow every session live on Sky Sports F1, with streaming available through NOW without a long‑term contract.
While the Italian fans may still be nursing the sting of a disappointing Monza, the team’s renewed focus and Vasseur’s candid commitment to improvement suggest that the Scuderia will arrive in Madrid with a clear plan: extract maximum performance from the upgraded chassis, manage the power‑unit deficit intelligently, and deliver a result that restores pride to the Tifosi and puts Ferrari back in contention for podium finishes.