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Ferrari are not sitting still following Lewis Hamilton’s maiden victory for the Scuderia in Barcelona, and are now ready to unleash a new upgrade for the next race weekend that Lando Norris fears will make them a ‘dominant’ force on the grid.
The seven-time world champion rolled back the years as he dominated the Montmelo-based circuit on Sunday, with his victory at the Barcelona Grand Prix marking the first non-Mercedes winner in 2026.
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The Ferrari pit wall executed the perfect strategy to ensure that Hamilton retained his lead following a late Virtual Safety Car, with the Briton going on to lay down the hammer as he stretched out a nearly 20-second gap to George Russell in P2.
The Scuderia brought a mammoth upgrade package to Barcelona, featuring eight new chassis updates to the SF-26. However, the chink in its armour is the power unit, which Maranello is hoping to address at the next round of racing in Austria.
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While the FIA’s ADUO ruling is not yet confirmed due to Red Bull’s challenge of the verdict, Ferrari have continued developing their engine in hopes of further closing the gap to the championship leaders, Mercedes.
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Despite the furore from their Austrian rivals, Ferrari are expected to receive two free engine upgrades this year, as well as in 2027, too. Now, according to a report by La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Scuderia are ready to unleash the first upgrade at the Austrian Grand Prix.
The report also highlighted how the upgrade was initially expected to land at the Belgian Grand Prix in July, but the team have fast-tracked it in order to capitalise on the momentum they gained with Hamilton’s win on Sunday.
The ‘goal’ of the upgrade is to eat into the 30-horsepower deficit they currently face to Red Bull’s supposedly benchmark engine, and Ferrari are hoping to introduce their second update at the Prancing Horse’s most important weekend of the year: the Italian Grand Prix.
The SF-26’s lacklustre power unit is widely understood to be the only thing stopping them from mounting a serious championship challenge at this moment in time. The F1 car’s aero package is held in very high regard as the best on the grid.
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As such, reigning world champion Lando Norris has predicted Ferrari dominance if they do manage to get things sorted in the powertrain department. He joined Hamilton and Russell on the podium in Barcelona, completing a fully British rostrum for the first time since 1968.
In comments reported by the Italian outlet, he told journalists, “We’re lucky that Maranello doesn’t have the best engine at the moment, otherwise they would be dominant. They are the best in terms of cornering performance, and we are still far from it.”
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