The new engine could debut in Monza
There Ferrari started 2026 as the second force in Australia. The Scuderia from Maranello, especially in the race, was clearly the best behind the highly favored Mercedes. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton took a good 35 seconds off Lando Norris’s McLaren, while the comparison with Red Bull is not true because Max Verstappen had to come back from the back of the starting grid and because the only real comparison, Isack Hadjar, had to retire after a few laps.
Lando Norris he declared that Ferrari is currently the best car on the starting grid and that the performance of the power unit makes the difference in favor of Mercedes. To make the current picture of a decidedly well-born SF-26 even more interesting, there is the indiscretion reported by colleagues at AutoRacer.it: according to this newspaper, in fact, Ferrari started 2026 with a combustion engine which is a simple adaptation of the one used until 2025.
Work is underway in Maranello on a new ICE concept which is already running on the dynamic bench, it’s not just an update of the materials but of the entire architecture. The new combustion engine could debut as early as 2026 – hypothetically in Monza if the GPs in Saudi Arabia were to be canceled and in Bahrain or Belgium if they were instead confirmed – based on what the findings of the ADUO will be, the new system designed by the FIA to allow engine manufacturers with a lack of performance to catch up on the top of the class in terms of power units.
