For the first time since Mexico City 2024, Fred Vasseur could celebrate a Scuderia Ferrari victory at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP.
On a weekend where Ferrari brought more updates to their SF-26 challenger, the team made steps forward. Lewis Hamilton narrowly missed out on pole position, with Charles Leclerc also looking quick until he crashed at the start of Q3.
On race day, an aggressive three-stop and stunning pace from Lewis Hamilton saw the Brit bag his first win in red at the Circuit de Catalunya. Mercedes were caught out on both strategy and speed, especially in George Russell’s case.
Vasseur fully confident of Scuderia Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton win at 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP
The outcome of the race happened long before it ended. Fernando Alonso pulled off near turn 9 with more reliability problems, creating a VSC. With Mercedes having pitted a few laps earlier, Lewis Hamilton boxed under it and retained the lead. If it had not appeared, it is likely the seven-time World Champion would have rejoined in P4 under green flags.
Nonetheless, thanks to his blistering pace on Sunday and a tyre offset, a victory would have still been very likely.
Speaking in his print media session post-race, the Ferrari Team Principal is certain a win was coming under any circumstance.
“We would have won the race, perhaps with a bit less, but we were also in a good situation with a fresh set of tyres at this stage.
“It was positive for us, but I don’t want to do the calculations. I would have won the race with this or this, but I think we were already in a very good situation.”
Not getting too excited
Since the start of the year, the Ferrari chassis has been praised. Andrea Stella has been particularly vocal on his former team having the best chassis in Formula 1 this year. He referenced their excellent medium speed performance again post-race.
Despite plenty of podiums before Sunday, Scuderia Ferrari had not won a race in 2026. That all changed thanks to Lewis Hamilton‘s searing pace and the important upgrades brought to this round for the SF-26.
Asked about his confidence following the P1 at the 2026 F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, Fred Vasseur was keeping his feet firmly on the ground.
He mentioned how different cars and/or drivers worked better on different compounds in the first race of 2026 that featured significant tyre degradation. In the first stint, George Russell looked incredibly quick on mediums, before fading on the hards. It was the opposite for Kimi Antonelli.
“Yes, but this we have to pay attention. It’s not because you are doing a good weekend that you will blow up everybody every single weekend.
“You know that the conditions were quite extreme [heat and tyre degradation], it was already the case in Canada for different reasons [cold temperatures]. But probably the next race in Austria, it will be something more average, let’s see.
“We are all really on the edge for degradation. You can do a good stint and a bad stint with the same car on the same track. We have differences between cars, if you compare the stint in medium and hard, some cars had much more performance on the hard, some had much more performance on the medium, it’s not a given for the rest of the season.”
Positive trends but a 2026 F1 season full of upgrades and changes
P2, P2 and P1. Those are the last three results for Lewis Hamilton in Sunday races. Although Ferrari has not got an engine at the level of Mercedes presently, the chassis is extremely strong.
While Fred Vasseur is happy with the progress and steps forward they are making following the F1 Barcelona-Catalunya GP, the brand new rules in 2026 mean there is a massive scope for development of these cars and engines still.
The Frenchman is fully aware winning the development race against Mercedes will be key to keep this championship fight going through the whole campaign.
“What is good is that we are going in the right direction, it was a good weekend in Canada, a good one in Monaco.
“This weekend the pace was good from the beginning, we were able to fight yesterday with the two cars for the pole position.
“I think it’s a good step forward, but I think what is important is that this season the championship will be based on the capacity of the team to develop, not on the picture of Barcelona.
“Usually throughout the last 25 years we are used to say that a good car in Barcelona will dominate the season, but I think this season will be much more based on the capacity of all the teams to bring performance to the car.
“I think we brought something this weekend, the others didn’t. They will probably bring something in the UK [Silverstone] or something soon.
“And it will be all capacity and the capacity of the whole team to develop.”
