Ferrari: Austria’s tire degradation worsened by the enlarged air intakes on the bonnet?

Analysis of the Ferrari black weekend After the good victory in Barcelona, ​​Ferrari experienced a decidedly negative weekend at the Austrian Grand Prix. The men from Maranello did well in qualifying (Leclerc second and Hamilton third), but in the race they were never competitive and finished in fifth and eighth place. Mercedes, Red Bull and even McLaren seemed stronger than Ferrari.
One of the main themes of the post Zeltweg was precisely what happened in these two weeks to Ferrari, which also brought an updated power unit to the track thanks to the ADUO concessions. Why did Hamilton and Leclerc eat tires? In addition to the well-known power problems that are limiting the Ferrari in this first part of the 2026 world championship, the SF-26 seen at the Red Bull Ring also had an obvious difficulty in tire management, as demonstrated by Lewis Hamilton’s three pit stops. A possible explanation for the tire problems was given by the British newspaper The Race: “Probably, neither driver was helped by the large cooling air intakes that Ferrari positioned above the bonnet, which were larger than those present on Mercedes and Red Bull. They are a necessary evil to cool the powertrain, but they would only have contributed to the degradation of the Ferrari’s rear tires due to the penalty in terms of aerodynamic efficiency they entail.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-30 10:00:00