Maranello\u2019s<\/a> staunchest technical and team boss rivals, but some now even credit the rotisserie blade with a second a lap advantage. <\/p>\nTime will tell, but that was just one of several clever aero innovations, like that exhaust wing. Whatever pace they\u2019re worth, all of it brought more excitement to Ferrari than anyone else in the tests.<\/p>\n
Lewis\u2019 lightning test starts were another huge positive. How often has it been that the first into turn 1 is the winner 300 kilometres later? More than you\u2019d care to guess. So if they can regularly do that from row 3, who knows how much that may be worth in the long run. So, looking at the track action, Ferrari should be odds on to take the title at the tattersalls come Adelaide time.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s more to it. There\u2019s been a certain, albeit guarded spring in that collective Maranello step in the past weeks. And it\u2019s just growing stronger. From the team\u2019s far more vocal warts \u2018n all new social media video campaign to the looks on all their faces. They are all grinning. All the time. Far from the sombre Ferrari we became used to though this latest, winless season. <\/p>\n
“Testing went very well, reliability was good and we did much more than we expected to and overall we\u2019re happy to meet our pre-season testing targets,\u201d team boss Fred Vasseur fired with his best shot at a poker face.<\/p>\n
Spring in the collective Maranello step![\"hamilton](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/hamilton-ferrari-f1-2026-testing-bahrain-699a09dad3cb1.jpg@webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Vasseur added: \u201cSo we can focus on carrying this momentum into the season, even if It’s difficult to see a clear picture of performance. We\u2019ll only know the true pecking order in Melbourne and that probably won’t be the picture at the end of the season. Still, I\u2019d prefer that we\u2019re in good shape there.\u201c<\/p>\n
A very different Lewis Hamilton turned up for testing, versus the mope we witnessed fading into the end of 2025. \u201cI rebuilt over winter,\u201d the seven-time World Champion reflected in Bahrain. <\/p>\n
\u201cI refocussed my body and my mind to a far better place. I\u2019m now in the best place that I’ve been in a long, long time. This car has more than just a bit of my DNA in it, so I’m for sure much more connected to it. That\u2019s why I joined Ferrari and why I have 100% faith in the team and what we’re capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pace man Charles Leclerc was pragmatic: “It’s nice to look at the lap times, but testing doesn’t really mean much,\u201d The Monegasque warned. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to understand where we really are, because teams tend to hide their true potential, so we rather focus on own targets. <\/p>\n
“Still, the car seems good, the new power unit feels fast and we must keep on improving the reliability. We head to Melbourne with a clear direction that suits my driving style. I think we have a lot of potential.”<\/p>\n
Of course, it\u2019s always proven a very different challenge for many, many time Winter World Champions Ferrari to win the real thing. Even if the writing on this year\u2019s wall is far clearer than it\u2019s been for a long, long time. Forza Ferrari!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s nothing strange about Ferrari winning the Formula 1 ‘Winter’ World Championship. But this one seems different. Fifty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,13275,817,222471,826,813,816,823,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-495422","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-opinion","13":"tag-ferrari","14":"tag-formula-1","15":"tag-formula1","16":"tag-lewis-hamilton","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495422","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=495422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"leclerc](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/leclerc-ferrari-sf26-699a09ab9128b.jpg@webp.webp\")
The SF-26 was also quite reliable, radical cast iron heads and all. Never mind that wing that stole the headlines. Not only did it impress even among