Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur has revealed the extreme length some Formula 1 teams may go to next season to beat rivals ahead of the new 2026 technical regulations.
2026 sees the introduction of new regulations, with a redesigned car focusing on aerodynamics, as well as a 50/50 split between the internal combustion engine and electric power.
As teams cannot start work on their 2026 cars until next season, next year could feature evolutions of the current cars, similar to the 2021 season, as the focus shifted to the 2022 ground-effect era.
A repeat of this scenario will result in a race to get a competitive advantage ahead of the start of the new rules by other means, with an unusual method hinted at by Vasseur.
He has suggested that teams could willingly sacrifice their 2025 season, finishing lower down in the standings to gain more wind tunnel testing time in 2026, which could upend the competitive order.
Outlining the current model, he stated the development path for the current era of cars has hit its ceiling, with only limited aero gains being made as the current rules cycle nears its end.
“It’s not critical in this period if someone has an advantage and is given more [wind tunnel] runs,” Vasseur said.
“That is because today we are making such small progress each run,” he concluded.
Short-term pain for long-term gain?
Vasseur then highlighted the advantage to be gained from finishing in the lower order of the table, giving teams valuable additional time on arguably the most crucial element of the 2026 regulations.
“But the game changer could be ’26 because you could have some teams that are perhaps not fighting for the championship next year that decide: ‘Okay, for ’25 we don’t care if we are Px [in the constructors’] and we don’t care if we are x plus two or x minus two. We will just go full on the ’26 project,” he surmised.
“If you are fighting for something, you will have the temptation to do more for ’25 plus, [and] on the top [of that], the other teams already have more, because they are Px compared to P1 in the table. So the Px will be fully focused on ’26 but the P1 will be split [across the two seasons],” he concluded.
Wind tunnel testing time is currently calculated by finishing position in the Constructors’ Championship, with the lowest-placed teams allocated the most time across the season.
Vasseur’s suggestion leaves title contenders with a delicate balancing act, as finishing too low loses prestige and would result in a significant drop in prize money at the end of the year.
But, should Ferrari sacrifice its 2025 season and finish lower down the order, it would enter 2026 with considerably more wind tunnel testing time than current title rivals Red Bull and McLaren.
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