{"id":788505,"date":"2026-07-08T15:43:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T15:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/788505\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T15:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T15:43:13","slug":"toto-wolff-expecting-strong-ferrari-challenge-for-rest-of-f1-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/788505\/","title":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff expecting strong Ferrari challenge for ‘rest of F1 2026’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toto Wolff expects Ferrari<\/a> to continue challenging Mercedes’<\/a> dominance of the 2026 Formula 1 campaign after Charles Leclerc<\/a>\u2019s victory at the British Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The Silver Arrows mastered the switch to the 2026 regulations by winning the opening six grands prix, but then Ferrari closed the gap with a substantial upgrade package for Barcelona.<\/p>\n

That was the sight of Lewis Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s maiden victory for the Scuderia and although Mercedes was back on top in Austria, last weekend saw Ferrari claim its second victory in three rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to look at ourselves,\u201d said Wolff at Silverstone, where his team took a podium via George Russell<\/a>\u2019s runner-up finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said before the weekend that they’re going to be lacking energy over this track – they haven’t. They were a strong competitor and this is to be expected now for the rest of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur is remaining pessimistic about his team\u2019s chances, particularly shooting down talk of a title battle as the Italian outfit is 78 points behind Mercedes.<\/p>\n

\"Andrea <\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Vasseur\u2019s squad is also still searching for consistency, because Austria saw Leclerc and Hamilton respectively drop from second and third to eighth and fifth after struggling for race pace.<\/p>\n

Although Hamilton then took a surprise sprint pole last weekend, he was overtaken by championship leader\u00a0Kimi Antonelli, who went on to win for Mercedes.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old also took pole for the Sunday race and despite dropping behind Leclerc on lap one, Antonelli was set for a late charge to victory until suffering from a broken wheel shield.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

So Vasseur was not particularly pleased when asked about a potential title battle, saying: \u201cChampionship fight is your words. After Barcelona, I had the comment, ‘Ah, Ferrari is back in the championship’. I said no.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe week after, you told me, Ferrari is nowhere, I said no. We were on the first row. I will have exactly the same approach with everybody at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo say, guys, we did a good weekend. Now let’s be focused on Spa. It’s not that we are champions. We are not nowhere. We are improving step by step.<\/p>\n

\"Frederic <\/p>\n

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Michael Potts \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is like it is. I never try to draw a conclusion after one race, two races, a good result, a bad result. I’m just focused to do more and to do better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s true for me. It’s true for everybody at the factory. Then it’s your job to speak about championship. But I never did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Frenchman therefore thinks Mercedes still holds an advantage over Ferrari, especially when it comes to overall performance heading into the Belgian GP on 17-19 July.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s be focused on Belgium,\u201d added Vasseur. \u201cLet’s do a good race. I think Mercedes, honestly, they still have an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a look at the six, seven sessions that we did this weekend, they are probably five times ahead. But it means that we had a good race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s true that on the long race, it’s probably a bit easier for us, because you have the start, you have the strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the sprint, it’s a bit more difficult. You don’t have strategy. It’s pure pace – let’s see what we can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we also have to be realistic. Overall, they still have a small advantage in terms of pure performance. It will be difficult. But let’s be focused on Belgium.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toto Wolff expects Ferrari to continue challenging Mercedes’ dominance of the 2026 Formula 1 campaign after Charles Leclerc\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[1037,49,48,578,930,576,577,1881,3838,82,278627],"class_list":["post-788505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-british-gp","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-mercedes","tag-silverstone","tag-sports","tag-toto-wolff-expecting-strong-ferrari-challenge-for-rest-of-f1-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}