Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur revealed that the team will be bringing a ‘Spec A’ car to Barcelona, not their actual 2026 F1 car.
When talking about the first testing session of the season, Vasseur told The Raceand other media outlets: “In this situation, the most important [thing] is to get mileage. It’s not to chase performance, it’s to get mileage to validate the technical choice of the car in terms of reliability. Then [after that is] to get performance. I think everybody will come to Barcelona with not a mule car, but it’s a, let’s say, Spec A.”
Vasseur’s target for Barcelona F1 testing
Last year, Formula 1 only held three testing days. This year, under the new regulations, they will have three times that amount. They will be able to test for three days in Barcelona, then for six days in Bahrain.
The Frenchman said, “We are not used anymore to having nine test days. The last four or five seasons, we did three. It’s an advantage, but it’s also a completely different programme.
“It means that the first target in this kind of season is to get the reliability. You remember perfectly the seasons of 10 or 15 years ago, the first races, you had a huge percentage of DNFs,” He continued, “What we want to avoid, compared to 2025, is that when we were lost at the beginning of the season with the disqualification [from the Chinese Grand Prix], we lost mileage, we lost reference, and then you are running after this and it’s a long process.”
More F1 testing for 2026
The Barcelona testing is scheduled from January 26th to 30th, with teams choosing which three days to test. Unlike the six days in Bahrain, Barcelona is held behind closed doors. Vasseur said, “The first focus in Barcelona will be to get mileage with the car to understand the reliability of the car, where we have to improve and what we have to react to.”
The 57-year-old added, “If you understand something in Bahrain [during testing] you won’t have time to react for Australia. It means that the first target of Barcelona will be to get mileage more than pure performance.
“I’m really convinced that in 2025, the picture of Bahrain [the only testing session held in 2025] was almost the picture of Abu Dhabi, [2024] the last race. Next year, you will have a huge rate of development over the season, and more like 2022 or this kind of season.”
Vasseur tackles Hamilton’s 2025 F1 struggles
Heading into 2026, Ferrari will retain its driver lineup of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. This will be Hamilton’s second year with the team since moving from Mercedes. In 2025, he was outqualified 19 times by Leclerc. It was also his first season ever without standing on the podium.
Speaking in Maranello, Vasseur mentioned to ESPN and others about the tough transition the Brit had and how the French team boss underestimated it.
“I think it was difficult for Lewis, and it’s too small a word, probably, but it was difficult because after 20 years, I say 20 years because for me McLaren was McLaren-Mercedes and then Mercedes, he spent 20 years with Mercedes. It was a huge change.”
“I personally underestimated the step. It’s not that we are doing worse or better; it’s that we are just doing differently. It’s not just about the food or the weather, it’s that every single software is different, every single component is different, the people around him, they were different, and if you are not on top of everything, you leave on the table a couple of hundredths of seconds.
“Today, with the field that we have, I think it was in Abu Dhabi in Q2 that you had one tenth covering P5 and P15. We were not in full control of every single detail and package, and we lost a bit of the path of the season like this.”
Improvements for Ferrari in F1 2026
On what it takes to improve for the next season, Vasseur added, “I think it has to come from everywhere. I think that the mindset of the team and the mindset of the driver has to be that let’s try to do a better job everywhere. It’s not that you have something which is going well and the rest is going wrong.
“At the end of the day, we have to improve. We have to improve into the collaboration with Lewis. We have to improve on the team. He has to improve perhaps on how he gets the best from the car that he has. “
“It’s not that when you are three-tenths behind someone, it’s not that they have the magic bullet or they have the component in the car that’s three-tenths faster.
“Quite often, it’s that you have 10 topics where you are three hundredths of a second slower. One after one, we have to tackle each point.
“Honestly, it’s also a matter of mindset, a matter of understanding each other. I’m speaking about one side of the garage. In this case, it’s because with Charles, we know each other. But in this case, it’s more to understand exactly what he needs, what he wants. And for him, the same for me, to understand exactly what he would like to do.”
