McLaren is afraid of Ferrari The weekend in Barcelona put Ferrari at the center of discussions in the paddock again. Lewis Hamilton’s victory, which was certainly aided by a dash of good luck but relied on genuine consistency of pace in both pace and qualifying, caused some alarm at Mercedes and naturally at Montmeló’s third force, McLaren. Now comes the Red Bull Ring, a track that highlights the major flaw of the SF-26 project with the initial improvements provided by ADUO. Here McLaren have been dominant in 2025 but Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri do not believe they can repeat double the performance of 12 months ago. For the world champion, Ferrari has always been strong since the start of the year and the latest changes mean a further improvement on an already solid foundation. Norris’ comment in Austria was when Norris said: “I don’t think Ferrari have made much progress since the start of the year. I think they are one of the best teams so far. They have definitely made progress, but overall it is clear that Mercedes is the best car.” “I don’t know how much the engine upgrade will help him this weekend, but it’s clear he’s losing time on the straights. Maybe half his problems are down to power and a lot of it to aerodynamic drag, but if he makes a big step forward with the engine he could easily become the favourite. Not that he’s suddenly improved, he’s been strong all season, although probably not the best. He’s among the championship contenders and always has been.” Piastri’s words In fact, at the press conference for the drivers, Piastri named Ferrari as one of the favorites: “If Mercedes and Ferrari are going to maintain this performance, we need other updates to catch up with them. We have to make the car faster and we have to do it faster than everyone else.”
Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News
2026-06-26 02:30:00
Automobile Magazine, 2026-06-26 09:50:00, automobilemagazine.com.tr
Automobile Magazine – English News
Source link 2026-06-27 18:26:00
