Racing
© Spencer
Ferrari arrives at the Canadian Grand Prix needing Montreal to prove its Miami upgrade package was not a false step after post-race analysis showed the revamped SF-26 delivered far less than expected, just as Mercedes and McLaren prepare fresh gains of their own.
The pressure comes from what Ferrari found back in Maranello after Miami. The team had fitted 11 new parts to the SF-26, aiming to close on the front, but the data review pointed to a car that had not extracted the full potential of those changes. Franco Nugnes, citing Motorsport.com, reported that none of the new components had actually failed, but that their performance was “far below what had been predicted in simulation.”
That finding gave extra weight to Lewis Hamilton’s blunt verdict after the race. In a post-race reaction, the Ferrari driver said: “Our simulator is useless.” Coming after a weekend in which Ferrari expected a clear step and did not get one, the remark sharpened the focus on whether the team’s tools are accurately guiding its development.
Montreal now threatens to make that problem more visible rather than less. Mercedes is bringing its first major evolution package of the season, described as being worth around two to three tenths per lap, while McLaren is completing the remaining 40 percent of the update package it began introducing in Miami. Ferrari, then, is not just trying to understand its own parts. It is trying to do that while rivals move the target again.
There are at least some encouraging signs in Ferrari’s preparation for Canada. Reports from that work say the SF-26 has shown excellent performance in the corners and strong traction, qualities that matter on a stop-and-go lap. But the same preparation also exposed the weakness that could define Ferrari’s weekend: straight-line performance tied to problems with energy recovery and deployment.
The scale of that deficit looks serious. One report says Ferrari’s power unit is down by 22 to 25 horsepower against Mercedes in internal combustion output alone, without even factoring in the electrical side. Ferrari is also waiting for the ADUO calibration after this race to understand how far behind Mercedes and others it remains, and how much of that gap can still be addressed with further power unit work.
That leaves Montreal as an early-season reality check for Ferrari’s whole direction. If the team can finally unlock the potential of the Miami package on a circuit that rewards traction, braking and efficient deployment, it can steady a campaign that has not yet delivered the leap it expected. If it cannot, Ferrari risks falling further behind Mercedes and McLaren in the development race, with one report warning that a “small crisis room” could begin to form as the optimism of the opening rounds gives way to a more troubling picture.