As F1 pre-season testing wrapped up for 2026 in Bahrain, Fred Vasseur struck a measured but quietly optimistic tone about Scuderia Ferrari’s perparation ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Fred Vasseur relatively happy following 2026 F1 pre-season testing for Ferrari
Speaking after the 2026 pre-season testing in Bahrain, Vasseur said he was satisfied with the groundwork that Ferrari had laid but cautioned against reading too much into the headline times.
“Happy, yes,” he said, reflecting on the test. “But we have to keep in mind what was the target at the beginning.”
For Ferrari, the primary objective was clear: mileage and data. Across the sessions, the team focused on logging laps, gathering information, and refining the car step by step.
There was significant pace within the team, with Charles Leclerc recorded a 1:31.992 lap on the medium compound tyres on the final day, finishing 0.879s ahead of Lando Norris.
“What I get was to do a lot of mileage and I think this went pretty well. To collect data, to try to improve session after session. I think this went well.”
Testing performance “not relative”
However, as is always the case in pre-season testing, Vasseur warned against drawing firm performance conclusions from Ferrari‘s F1 development in 2026. With unknown fuel loads, varying engine modes, and different tyre programs across the grid, the true competitive order remains deliberately obscured.
“Now performance is not relative,” he explained. “It’s not, it’s not performance relative and that at the end of the day we don’t know the level of fuel of the others, we don’t know the engine mode, we don’t know that we didn’t have the same tyres.
“It means that let’s be focused on ourselves to try to do a better job in Melbourne than this weekend and we’ll see where we are.”
Ferrari development capacity more important than race one result
While Melbourne will offer the first competitive benchmark of the year, Vasseur emphasised that the bigger battle lies in development speed across the 2026 F1 season.
“I had a clear idea before this session that I don’t want to say it doesn’t matter the result of Melbourne, because I prefer to have a good result than a bad one. But at the end of the day I know that the development will be so huge during the season that the most important is the capacity of the team to develop, the capacity of the team to bring parts quickly much more than the performance at the race one.”
In a season expected to be defined by relentless upgrades and marginal gains, Vasseur delivered a clear message: consistency and development speed will determine Ferrari’s success more than any single Sunday in Australia.
“It means that we need to keep the momentum of the season and to be focused on development.”
Melbourne will offer the first real indication of where Ferrari stands, but for Vasseur, it is only the beginning of a much longer fight.
