Ferrari missed out on one signing alongside Lewis Hamilton who could have brought back the ‘glory days’

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Ferrari will find themselves under a lot of pressure to deliver heading into the 2026 Formula 1 season after failing to win in 2025.

Although there are six races left in the current campaign, the team don’t look like competing with McLaren, Red Bull, or Mercedes, and haven’t for some time. Any hope of finishing second in the constructors’ championship is fading fast.

Before Lewis Hamilton joined the team, there was hope that they could contend for at least one title this year. Ferrari’s gamble to change car concept over the winter backfired and has left them chasing their own tail. By their own high standards, they haven’t been good enough.

Ferrari ignored their drivers wishes by installing an update to the SF25, which now means that it doesn’t really respond to set-up changes. After a tough race and a late brake failure in Singapore, Hamilton released a Ferrari statement and got behind his team, despite their continued struggles.

READ MORE: Charles Leclerc tells Ferrari why they put Lewis Hamilton in a ‘very difficult situation’ in Singapore

Ferrari missed out on signing Adrian Newey who could have brought back the F1 ‘glory days’

Ferrari’s Hamilton experiment failed in Singapore, after expecting that the smooth corners would help solve an inherent understeer problem. Instead, they have been left scratching their heads, with little in the way of answers for their performance.

If full focus hasn’t already turned to the 2026 F1 regulations, it will be soon, as the team looks to bounce back from one of their most disappointing seasons in recent times. They’ll be competing against the likes of Adrian Newey and Aston Martin soon, who are unknown and could be potent.

Robert Doornbos thinks that getting Newey’s signature could have helped restore the ‘glory days’ at the team, but the circumstances they face were always going to make it hard to convince him to make such a move.

“Back in their glory, glory, glory days, those days, it was way more British team than it was an Italian team,” he said. “And I think that they are missing some maybe British structure in the Italian structure, to make it successful again.

“Guys like Adrian Newey, they got huge offers to go to Italy, but it’s not like [easy]. You have to move house, you have to move country, you have to move your whole life will be upside down, with a great opportunity.

“Still, they decided to stay in England and sign for Aston Martin. Being in Italy doesn’t help them always.”

READ MORE: Ferrari made a ‘detrimental’ set-up choice in Singapore that directly led to Lewis Hamilton’s penalty

Why Ferrari will be encouraged by their position heading into 2026

Whenever Ferrari have had extra time to focus on their new car ahead of a regulation change over the last 10 years, they have burst out of the blocks in strong fashion.

Think back to their miserable 2016 season, when they failed to win a race, only to transform into title contenders in 2017 when the bigger, bulkier cars arrived.

In 2021, they went through one of, if not their toughest, seasons in the last 25 years, and won the opening two races of 2022.

Having a seven-time champion and an experienced Charles Leclerc sets them up well following a year where they have been able to surrender and focus on their future plans. A championship challenge may be on the horizon.