Scott Gulbransen
I said it before the Austrian Grand Prix: I wasn’t buying the Ferrari hype. The Barcelona win was real, sure, but the circumstances around it raised more questions than it answered. Then the Red Bull Ring happened. Fifth and eighth. That’s your answer.
For all the hype leading to last weekend’s match at Red Bull Ring, Lewis Hamilton didn’t sugarcoat the results after the race. That’s a start.
Lewis Hamilton: We’re Not There Yet
“I think it’s more of a reality check,” Hamilton said. “We don’t know why we were so competitive on Sunday in Barcelona. That’s a very strong track for me. I chose a strategy that, from experience, I knew would work, with the degree that we had — it was like 2021. But then today I think we were hit more with reality: we do still have a good car, but we are down compared to Mercedes on outright pace. They just are quicker and we have to keep developing.”
That’s not a driver trending upward. That’s a driver recalibrating expectations in real time. He crossed the finish line 26 seconds behind George Russell — and Ferrari had actually brought a power unit upgrade to Austria specifically to claw back some of the pace deficit to Mercedes. Didn’t matter.
Scuderia Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was just as blunt about the lack of results at the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix.
“The strategy is not the issue,” the Ferrari boss said. “I think the issue is that we didn’t have the pace of Mercedes and Verstappen. We tried to compensate taking risks on the strategy, but it was not a good fight.”
He went further in a post-race statement, admitting the team’s own approach made things worse.
“We were probably too focused on Mercedes today. We pushed too hard in the opening laps with both cars and then perhaps reacted too aggressively with the strategy, trying to stay with them when, realistically, that wasn’t our race today.”
Related: Lewis Hamilton Puts Formula 1 Title Pressure on Kimi Antonelli with First Ferrari Win in Spain
For Ferrari, Silverstone is Monumental for 2026
So Ferrari heads to Silverstone this weekend for Hamilton’s home race, live on Apple TV+ in the U.S., carrying a more honest picture of where they actually stand.
The circuit matters here. Silverstone’s high-speed corners and relentless lateral loads are a different world from Spielberg’s layout and the punishing 95-degree track temps that wrecked Ferrari’s tires last Sunday. There’s a case to be made that Austria exposed some specific weaknesses, but not the full story. The problem for Ferrari is that Silverstone doesn’t hide much either. High-speed circuits with sustained cornering loads tend to reveal whether a team’s gains are real or just the result of favorable conditions.
Ferrari will bring fresh hardware: an updated Macarena wing, a low-drag diffuser, and a possible exhaust revision. Those updates could help. Whether they help enough against a Mercedes that has dominated most of this season, at a track where straight-line speed gaps get exposed on the long Hangar Straight, is a different question entirely.
The Ferrari Fact: The Car Just Might Not Be Good Enough
Lewis Hamilton knows what the real problem is, and it’s not strategy or the circuit, per se. No, it’s more fundamental than that but not easy to solve.
“We still have to just continue to add performance to the car,” Hamilton said. “Particularly power is where we’re going to keep working, for sure.”
Ferrari has been granted additional development allowances under F1’s ADUO framework, which specifically targets internal combustion engine performance. But the team itself has been cautious about how fast those gains will show up on track.
If Silverstone produces the same story with Ferrari chasing Mercedes, unable to run with them through the fast stuff, the questions about their championship credentials won’t just persist.
They’ll be louder than ever.
Ferrari struggled significantly at the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring, with Lewis Hamilton finishing fifth and Charles Leclerc eighth. Despite bringing a power unit upgrade to Austria, Ferrari lacked the outright pace of Mercedes and Max Verstappen. Both drivers were forced onto a three-stop strategy after struggling with tire degradation in extreme track temperatures. Hamilton finished 26 seconds behind race winner George Russell.
Hamilton called the Austrian Grand Prix result a reality check for Ferrari. He said the team does not fully understand why they were so competitive in Barcelona two weeks earlier, and acknowledged that Mercedes simply has more outright pace. Hamilton said Ferrari must continue developing the car, particularly in terms of power unit performance, to close the gap.
Ferrari is bringing an updated Macarena wing, a low-drag diffuser, and a potential exhaust system revision to Silverstone in an effort to close the performance gap to Mercedes. The team is also benefiting from additional engine development opportunities under F1’s ADUO framework, which allows teams with less competitive power units extra room to develop their internal combustion engine during the season.
As of the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix, Ferrari trails Mercedes in both race pace and straight-line speed. Hamilton has been consistent in saying the power unit gap is Ferrari’s biggest deficit. Team principal Fred Vasseur acknowledged after Austria that Ferrari simply did not have the pace of Mercedes or Verstappen on race day, and that strategic adjustments could not compensate for the underlying performance gap.
Silverstone’s high-speed layout and sustained lateral loads offer a different challenge than the Red Bull Ring. Cooler temperatures at the British Grand Prix should reduce the tire degradation issues that hurt Ferrari in Austria. However, Silverstone’s long straights and fast corners also expose power unit deficits, which remains Ferrari’s most significant weakness relative to Mercedes heading into the weekend.
