Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has conceded that “with hindsight, I would have done practically everything differently this year,” as the Scuderia prepares for the final stretch of another tough F1 campaign.

Ferrari may be second in the constructors’ championship, but it has often fallen behind Red Bull and McLaren on pace in the second half of the year.

Ferrari boss makes damning F1 2026 confession

New regulations for the F1 2026 season presented a golden opportunity for teams to establish themselves in a revised pecking order.

For Mercedes and Ferrari, both of which build their own power units and chassis, expectations were sky-high.

While Red Bull and Audi also design their own power units, a championship push to the end of the 2025 season left the former somewhat on the back foot in chassis development, while both teams were building powertrains for the first time, which also lowered expectations.

Approaching the final throws of the campaign, and with Mercedes likely to seal the Constructors’ title in Brazil, Ferrari boss Vassuer made a startling comment to Automoto’s Diletta Colombo, saying: “With hindsight, I would have done practically everything differently this year.

“I have a rather aggressive approach. Every Monday, when we return to the factory, we focus on what we did wrong. Certainly, every team after a race finds itself analysing what lies beneath the tip of the iceberg.

“I believe there’s room for improvement in every area, starting with the engine, from what was done three or four years ago. It’s not just a question of development capacity, but also, above all, analysis. Being able to quickly identify weaknesses is fundamental.”

A constant source of frustration for Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc has been the power unit, with the team lagging behind both Mercedes and Red Bull in grunt from the internal combustion engine [ICE].

This is despite Ferrari making two separate upgrades this term, with the first introduced for the Austrian Grand Prix, and the second coming for the Italian Grand Prix.

That second upgrade saw Ferrari align with the rest of the grid in running a wider-diameter turbo, after the team had begun the year with a smaller component in order to give them a boost off the line.

Latest Ferrari news on PlanetF1.com

“The ADUO is a somewhat perverse tool,” said Vasseur. “When we learned we’d get it, the choice was between introducing a new engine in June, one in September, or working on the 2027 model.

“Something had to be sacrificed, because it’s not possible to develop three projects in parallel due to the budget cap and resources. With the cost cap, pushing like crazy on the ADUO 2 would have meant sacrificing some of the 2027 project.

“It’s true that the ADUO also includes an extra budget, but if you put a new engine on the bench, the cost is practically equivalent to the ADUO.”

He added: “On the chassis level, if the project is a disaster, you can start from scratch for the following year.

“Doing the same with the engine, given the homologation cycle and the budget cap, isn’t immediate. These are multi-year projects.

“We hope to correct the situation next year, but from the outside, you don’t get the sense of how difficult it is to change direction.

“It’s like doing it with a large ship. The infrastructure is there, though.”