Frédéric Vasseur looks ahead to Ferrari's 2026 season: "There will be many more fluctuations"

Having been in contention for second place in the Constructors' Championship for a time, Classic Ferrari for sale ultimately finished in fourth position. While this result is understandable given a sluggish end to the season, it is nonetheless disappointing for the Tifosi, as well as the drivers themselves. Charles Leclerc et Lewis HamiltonDespite being affected by the end of the season, the two men delivered a solid performance this Sunday, December 7th in Abu Dhabi.

"It was a pretty good race for us," Frédéric Vasseur rightly commented on Canal+. "It's true that with Charles, we tried pretty much everything. We went to two pit stops to force them to react, to make a mistake, but neither Lando nor the team made one. The pace was good today. We were two or three seconds off the pace to avoid damaging the tires, to manage the race well. I think we set the fastest lap, but it's more in qualifying yesterday that we were missing something."

Later, inclined to assess Scuderia Ferrari's 2025 season, the Italian team's director didn't mince words. Making the extremely difficult decision to halt development of the SF-25 in the spring, the Frenchman, in a way, sacrificed his team's season to envision a theoretically brighter future.

"The beginning was very tough. We arrived in Bahrain already quite far behind." McLarenCompared to everyone else, they were on another planet. Frédéric Vasseur recallsIn race 2, we were disqualified and lost 30 points to our competitors, so after four or five races we found ourselves thinking – not that the championship was over because Red Bull proved that it was possible to compete – but virtually impossible for the teams' championship. There's a completely different project in 2026 with a much greater development capacity, so I think it was the right choice. What I probably underestimated, and this is my personal responsibility, is the psychological impact it had on everyone. When you don't develop for six months, I think all the teams realize that the races are going to get tougher and tougher. I'm not saying we're giving up because we're at Ferrari. But we weren't in the right frame of mind. Classic Mercedes for sale and Red Bull, which continued to develop this season.

ALSO READ > Charles Leclerc said he "gave everything" in Abu Dhabi, declaring he had "no regrets."

Ferrari's focus is on the future

Now, although Lewis Hamilton insists on his desire to cut ties with the F1 During the holiday season, Ferrari will be working hard to make the 2026 season a success. In 50 days, the next season will be a reality, but this doesn't seem to worry the pragmatic Frédéric Vasseur.

“If we turn things around, it will be thanks to the work we’ve been doing since January. Next year will be a completely different season. We came into this year knowing that, in terms of development, we’re gaining hundredths of a second. Today, for us as for everyone else, this development is much more important.” he explained. Next year, what will be crucial, more than the potential the teams have in Bahrain or Melbourne, will be their ability to develop the car throughout the races. We're going to find ourselves back in the F1 of a few years ago, where there will be much more fluctuation. This year, if you look at the qualifying data, you see almost straight lines. We started the season three-tenths of a second behind McLaren and we finished it three-tenths of a second behind McLaren because they retired at roughly the same time as us. Red Bull and Mercedes continued and squeezed in between us. I made the decision a few months ago. I take full responsibility for it, with both the positives and the negatives. I hope the positives are ahead of us.

ALSO READ > 2025 F1 Championship – Final standings after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Although speculation is rife during this period of betting, predictions, and forecasts, Ferrari aims to reclaim its place among the elite, on the eve of a 2026 still shrouded in mystery. While the drivers' discourse isn't as forthright as at Alpine For example, it seems that certainties are not the most relevant at the beginning of December. So, we'll have to wait a few weeks to start getting a clearer picture of the upcoming Formula 1 pecking order.