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Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton will be desperate for the 2026 Formula 1 season to be completely different from his debut campaign racing for the Scuderia.
Lewis Hamilton failed to finish on the podium in 2025 for Ferrari and finished 86 points behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Hamilton’s biggest frustration will be the gap to his teammate, but Ferrari have to take a lot of the responsibility for his disappointing season.
Team principal Fred Vasseur admitted that Ferrari stopped developing the SF-25 in April as they recognised that they had no chance of winning either championship.
Will we see the real Lewis Hamilton return in 2026?
That shift in mindset arrived after Shanghai when Hamilton won the Sprint Race before being disqualified from the Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hamilton was disqualified for excessive plank wear, and Ferrari were forced to raise their cars for every race going forward to avoid further punishment.
Leclerc missed out on a victory in Hungary for the same reason, and journalist Jon Noble has reported that a change in F1’s ruleset in 2026 has led teams to worry about how plank wear could impact their cars in mixed-weather races this season.
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F1 teams worried about excessive plank wear during the 2026 season after ruleset changes
Noble was speaking on The Race’s Patreon about the 2026 regulation changes and explained: “We don’t have the full answer yet in terms of what teams were testing in terms of downforce levels and variation.
“I think what we have learned about the wings is that their impact, or at least in straight line mode versus corner mode, is pretty minimal.
“Esteban Ocon said that in effect, all you’ve done is give the drivers a DRS on the front as well as the rear.
“Lando Norris said that because everyone’s doing the same thing, actually, it has almost no impact on performance anyway.
“The only thing I heard from the test, which is quite interesting, is that the teams starting doing some experiments about what happens if you’re in a race and straight line mode is deactivated, which can happen for safety reasons or if it’s raining.
“If you can’t open your front wing for example, there’s more drag, so you’re going to burn more battery power, you’re going to be slower on the straights and the downforce is going to push your plank more into the ground at the front because you’ve got rake back, and you’re going to wear your plank out and you’re going to get disqualified.
“So, I know some teams from someone who was watching trackside were experimenting with this, and sparks were flying, and planks were being worn away just to understand what happens.
“That could become a very interesting point in mixed weather races this year.”
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Ferrari preparing to surprise F1 rivals with 2026 upgrade package
The SF-26 has now made its debut on track in Barcelona, and the early signs look positive for Hamilton and Leclerc.
Hamilton setting the fastest time at the Circuit de Catalunya will have very little bearing on how this season plays out, but it might give Ferrari a useful confidence boost after being heavily criticised throughout 2025.
Ferrari are preparing plenty of updates on this year’s car already, but the most important aspect heading into the Australian Grand Prix is reliability.
The new power unit is being tested by Ferrari, Haas and Cadillac, which will be providing valuable data to the team.
Haas and Ferrari, in particular, completed plenty of laps, with only Mercedes covering more distance.
Ferrari’s issue is that Hamilton needs the car to be as low to the ground as possible to maximise his performance, but if there are further plank wear concerns heading into this season, then that might put him on the back foot once again.
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