Ted Kravitz noticed one thing ‘straight away’ during Lewis Hamilton’s first lap in 2026 Ferrari car

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Ferrari unveiled their new car for the 2026 season at Fiorano this Friday, before Lewis Hamilton put the SF-26 through its initial paces with a shakedown at their test circuit.

The Scuderia have bet heavily on the 2026 F1 regulations being their potential route back to winning titles. Kimi Raikkonen still remains the most recent Ferrari star to win the F1 drivers’ championship with his title from 2007, and they also last won the constructors’ title in 2008.

Hamilton initially believed Ferrari had “every ingredient” to win a title upon his arrival at the Scuderia a year ago. But team principal Fred Vasseur quickly realised that 2025 would not be Ferrari’s year. So, Vasseur stopped developing Ferrari’s 2025 car in April to prioritise 2026.

F1 has introduced the biggest overhaul of the rulebook so far for the 2026 season, with new engine, aero, chassis and tyre regulations. F1 engines now have a near 50/50 share between electrical and combustion power, run on sustainable fuels and no longer feature the MGU-H.

Are we looking at the car that will win Ferrari their first drivers’ championship since 2007?

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Ted Kravitz immediately ‘noticed’ Lewis Hamilton using the active aero on Ferrari’s 2026 F1 car

Formula 1 also had to tweak the aero regulations to allay fears that drivers would run out of energy on power-hungry tracks or along long straights, like those at Monza. F1 incorporated active aero on front and rear wings that drivers can activate in certain sections at each track.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the 2026 F1 engine and aero regulations

Hamilton wasted no time to test out Ferrari’s active aero on their 2026 car as soon as he hit Fiorano on Friday, which immediately caught the attention of Ted Kravitz. Ferrari have used their test track in Maranello for a shakedown, with Charles Leclerc also due to hit the track.

Kravitz said on Sky Sports News (23/01, 10:33): “The launch of any Ferrari is always a very special occasion, but this one really more so. The fans have been up on the hill, and we’ve just seen it. It’s come out of the garage and is now going around this Fiorano track.

“It actually looks smaller. It looks different. There’s a bit more white on the engine cover as part of the team’s visual identity, which has changed a little bit for this year.

“But the thing I’ve noticed straight away is this opening of the rear wing that we’re seeing that all of these cars are going to be doing this year with the new regulations.”

Ted Kravitz hears a ‘crisper note’ from Ferrari’s 2026 F1 regulations engine

A year since this iconic shot ⏳ Be honest — one word for Hamilton’s Ferrari era so far? 👀

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Like Kravitz, many F1 fans noticed the white engine cover on the SF-26 after Ferrari unveiled Hamilton and Leclerc’s car on Friday. A lot of F1 fans see similarities between Ferrari’s 2026 livery and their 2016 car, in which Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen failed to win a Grand Prix.

The sound of Ferrari’s 2026 engine also caught Kravitz’s ear, as F1 removing the MGU-H has amplified the noise from the internal combustion engine despite the increase in electrical power. F1 has removed the MGU-H in a bid to reduce costs and the complexity of engines.

“The new engine sound, that’s really different,” Kravitz added. “We started to hear this with the other big team that ran their car yesterday, which is, of course, Mercedes. But now I’m seeing, and more importantly hearing it, on the Ferrari. It really does sound different.

“It sounds louder, it sounds more raspy. Of course, this is to do with the new engines. They’ve changed one of the key components that ran a turbine through the turbocharger, that’s gone. And so the engine does have a crisper note.”