Ferrari downplayed suggestions that F1’s enforced five-week April break prompted an ad hoc or accelerated development push, saying the SF-26 upgrades follow a long-planned, evidence-driven path rather than a reaction to the hiatus. Chassis technical director Loic Serra told Motorsport.com, “development is not happening in one week or one month,” and said “missing a race or two does not alter what teams learn in the factory,” describing the pause as a limited disruption that did not justify radical or experimental changes.
The team said SF-26 development began in early 2025, with more than a year of virtual work followed by on-track testing, and it expects to bring a substantial upgrade package to the Miami Grand Prix on May 3. Ferrari confirmed it trialed items such as the “Macarena” wing and halo-base winglets, and said further development will be limited in the short term, with small incremental parts more likely to appear at races than wholesale package swaps.
The break followed the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, reports linked the cancellations to conflict in the Middle East and, in one account, the Iran war. Other teams used the downtime to rush aerodynamic and mechanical parts for Miami and to prepare responses to incoming 2026 regulation changes. Serra expressed skepticism that rivals could or would stage rapid, consecutive upgrades for Miami and Montreal, citing the non-linear nature of development and cost constraints, and he questioned the value of bringing parts only to replace them at the next event. Ferrari presented its program as deliberate, factory-led and continuity-driven rather than driven by the brief calendar interruption.
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