{"id":355237,"date":"2025-12-18T03:19:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T03:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355237\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T03:19:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T03:19:12","slug":"ferrari-faces-bleak-2026-outlook-says-former-f1-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355237\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari faces bleak 2026 outlook, says former F1 driver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Williams driver Riccardo Patrese has expressed doubts over Scuderia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-teams\/ferrari\" title=\"Ferrari\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s prospects for the 2026 season.\u201cI struggle to be optimistic about the Prancing Horse.\u201d- Riccardo Patrese<\/p>\n<p>The 71-year-old, in his assessment of the recently concluded campaign, criticised comments from team president John Elkann regarding Ferrari\u2019s drivers, pointing out the contrast between Elkann\u2019s praise and the reality of the car\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJohn Elkann has a lot to say that the Reds&#8217; pit stops are the fastest in the world. But then, what do you do if you give [Charles] Leclerc and [Lewis] Hamilton a car that is three tenths slower per lap?\u201d Patrese said via Quotidiano Nazionale.<\/p>\n<p>The former Benetton team driver continued by stating he is not optimistic about Ferrari\u2019s prospects for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/20250907-0335m-68c6554e36b35.jpg@webp.webp\" class=\"w-auto h-auto\" alt=\"hamilton-leclerc-vasseur-ferrari.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Fred Vasseur at Monza &#8211; Photo: Race Pictures<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, I struggle to be optimistic about the Prancing Horse&#8217;s 2026,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The Scuderia Ferrari outfit endured a challenging 2025 campaign, with drivers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/charles-leclerc\" title=\"Charles Leclerc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Charles Leclerc<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/f1-drivers\/lewis-hamilton\" title=\"Lewis Hamilton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> failing to record a single Grand Prix victory. The team\u2019s only victory came in the Sprint race in China.Ferrari\u2019s struggles were reflected in the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/constructors-standings-norris-takes-title-and-mclaren-win-constructors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> Constructors\u2019 Championship, where they finished fourth, over 50 points behind Red Bull Racing<\/a>.Patrese calls for stronger technical leadership at FerrariIn his assessment of the team, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpblog.com\/en\/news\/patrese-highlights-shortcomings-in-ferrari-management-after-troubled-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Patrese also criticised team principal Fred Vasseur<\/a>, emphasising the need for stronger technical leadership.<\/p>\n<p>The six-time Grand Prix winner highlighted that the French motorsport chief has had enough time but appears incapable of implementing the desired changes at Ferrari.<\/p>\n<p>Catch up with GPBlog\u2019s Latest Paddock Update<\/p>\n<p>With the post-2025 season finale action and reaction continuing, our paddock update is the place to be.<\/p>\n<p>Follow our channels on YouTube and Spotify to stay up to date with all the happenings as they unfold following the final Grand Prix of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the latest episode of our paddock update here \ud83d\udc47<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Williams driver Riccardo Patrese has expressed doubts over Scuderia Ferrari\u2019s prospects for the 2026 season.\u201cI struggle to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,13275,817,35119,826,813,816,18894,823,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-355237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-charles-leclerc","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-news","13":"tag-ferrari","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-frederic-vasseur","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}