Ferrari Upgrade Brings Progress, Not a Fix at the Austrian Grand Prix
NXTbets Pro | Published On: June 29, 2026
Ferrari struggles
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc left the team with a blunt message after a difficult practice day at the Austrian Grand Prix. He said Ferrari are likely to struggle and that the team had “a lot of work to do overnight” before the next running. Ferrari’s pace on the straight and through the corners both fell short, and Leclerc said the lack of cornering speed came as a surprise. He also said there was no clear fix for the straight-line deficit and that the problem might stay with Ferrari for the rest of the weekend. That left the Italian team chasing answers after a session that did little to ease concerns about where it stands against the front-runners.
Leclerc pushed back on the idea that missing the opening practice session was the reason for the setback. He said the issues ran deeper than one lost run and pointed to wider balance and speed concerns across the car. Ferrari had Leclerc sit out the first session so rookie Dino Beganovic could take the wheel of the SF-26, then Leclerc returned for the second session and completed 35 laps before finishing eighth. That run gave the team more data, but it did not produce the response Ferrari wanted. Leclerc’s comments made clear that the problems were not isolated to one change in the program. Ferrari arrived with a fresh power unit through the ADUO performance-balancing mechanism, but Leclerc described the update as progress rather than a complete fix. The message from the cockpit was simple. Ferrari gained something, but it did not gain enough to change the shape of its weekend.
Leclerc doubts
Leclerc’s assessment also sharpened the picture around Ferrari’s place in the pecking order. He said Ferrari were not the favorites for the weekend and pointed to Mercedes as the team still holding an edge on the long straights at the Red Bull Ring. That matters at a venue where raw speed can shape the lap and expose any weakness in drag or power delivery. Leclerc said Ferrari hoped to make a significant step forward in qualifying or race trim the following day, but his tone suggested the team was still searching for a clear direction. The comments fit with the broader view from the garage, where Ferrari’s Friday running exposed a car that was not comfortable enough over one lap and not fast enough in a straight line to mask the problem. Leclerc did not dress it up. He saw a team that had to fight for every gain and still had no obvious cure for the main deficit. That leaves Ferrari with a narrow window to turn a difficult start into something more competitive before the action resumes.
Team principal Fred Vasseur offered a similar read on the challenge facing Ferrari. He called the day difficult and said Austria’s altitude and temperature added to the burden on the team. Those conditions made an already tricky picture harder to manage, and Vasseur said Ferrari’s new engine was only “a decent step forward” rather than a major breakthrough. That line matched Leclerc’s view of the update. The team improved, but it did not solve the central problem. Ferrari’s struggle was not limited to one weak area, and the comments from both the driver and the team principal showed a group that knows where it stands after the first two sessions. The straight-line speed is still short. The cornering pace is still a concern. The new engine has helped, but only to a point. Ferrari now has to turn that limited progress into something useful when the weekend moves into the sessions that matter most.
Hamilton balance
Lewis Hamilton also spent the day dealing with a Ferrari that showed promise in pieces but lost too much time over a lap. He finished fifth in both sessions, a steady result that still left him behind the leading pace. Hamilton said the car felt encouraging at first, then lost ground as setup and balance problems started to drag it down. That is the kind of issue that can hide in short bursts and then show up clearly when a driver tries to put a full lap together. Ferrari’s pace profile on the day offered the same warning. The car could show flashes, but it could not hold them across a complete run. Hamilton’s two fifth-place finishes gave Ferrari a respectable line in the timing sheets, yet they also reinforced the sense that the team is working around a setup window that is still too narrow. When the balance shifts, the lap time goes with it.
At the front, Mercedes set the pace through Kimi Antonelli, who topped both sessions and gave his team the strongest Friday in the field. That left Ferrari with a clear benchmark and a hard one to match. The gap on the long straights and the lack of cornering speed gave Mercedes a cleaner path through the day, while Ferrari spent its time chasing improvements that never fully arrived. The contrast mattered because it showed where the standard sits before qualifying and race work begins in earnest. Mercedes has the edge. Ferrari has the work. Leclerc and Hamilton both gave the same basic report from the same garage, and that consistency will matter as the team sorts through setup changes and the fresh engine package. Ferrari did not leave the day empty-handed, but it left with a car that still needs more speed, more balance and a sharper answer to the demands of the circuit.
