Fred Vasseur fears Ferrari cannot solve the SF-26’s main engine ‘limitation’ before the summer

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Fred Vasseur is understood to fear that Ferrari cannot fix their super clipping problem until they can introduce an upgraded engine, which is not expected until the summer.

The Scuderia had initially emerged as the nearest rivals for Mercedes through the first three rounds of the 2026 F1 season. But the upgrades that McLaren and Red Bull took to Miami in round four last weekend appear to have ushered them ahead of Ferrari in the pecking order.

Ferrari took the most upgrades by any team to the Miami Grand Prix, with the pride of Italy debuting 11 updates on the SF-26 in their bid to catch Mercedes. The Maranello squad had essentially a B-spec version of their car in Florida, but more work is still needed to compete.

Charles Leclerc showed flashes of Ferrari’s potential in America, as he qualified P4 for the F1 Sprint and he finished the dash in third. Yet he took the finish 6.251 seconds adrift as Lando Norris won the Miami Sprint, and he nor Lewis Hamilton were competitive in the Miami GP.

Here’s how the championship standings look after the Miami GP! 🏆

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Fred Vasseur fears Ferrari need a new engine to solve their super clipping problems

According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Ferrari still feel ‘partly’ pleased with their updates, which the Scuderia ‘believed’ strongly in ahead of the Miami GP, as the SF-26 was ‘more balanced’ in slow and medium-speed corners. The launch-spec SF-26 had ‘struggled’ in those areas.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory

But the deficit that Ferrari faced to, especially, Mercedes and McLaren in Miami brought the mood in the Scuderia camp down. Ferrari team principal Vasseur also now believes his team will not solve their ‘structural’ super clipping problem until they can introduce a new engine.

Ferrari’s power unit sees Leclerc and Hamilton run out of electrical power before the end of the longer straights, when the super clipping phase commences to recharge the battery. The Scuderia even think the issue may stop them from winning races until they debut a new PU.

A new engine is Ferrari’s big hope for improving their pace over a race stint, but they cannot introduce a new PU at will. Ferrari must wait for the FIA to share which teams will gain from the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system for engine updates.

The FIA is due to rule on which teams will get ADUO tokens after the Canadian GP, and it has emerged that some think Ferrari have sandbagged their engine to gain ADUO upgrades. But even though Ferrari are set to gain ADUO status, it can take months for an upgrade to arrive.

The ADUO system introduced for 2026, given the new engine regulations, will afford one ICE upgrade for any engines that are between 2-4% worse than the benchmark power unit. Any internal combustion engines that are more than 4% down will receive two upgrade tokens.