Ferrari Formula 1 team principal Frédéric Vasseur admitted that the Scuderia's decision to focus exceptionally early on developing their 2026 car negatively impacted team morale during the 2025 season.
Ferrari had a rather disappointing start to last season, and in its early stages, they redirected all their efforts towards developing the 2026 car. This, of course, had a negative effect on the performance of the Prancing Horse throughout the 2025 season, as they finished the campaign without a single victory in a main race.
“It’s too early to know if we made the right decision or not; that’s a completely separate topic. But as of today, we are developing this car much more than we were at the same point a year ago. The decision to halt development on the 2025 car after only five or six races was tough. I still believe it was a good decision, but if there was one thing I underestimated, it was the psychological effect on everyone in the team, including the drivers. The reason was certainly a good one – to focus on the 2026 season to try and make the most of the new regulations. But on the other hand, we were in the middle of a season with 20 races still to go, and it’s difficult when you know there won’t be any more upgrades. Perhaps I underestimated that for them, and for myself,” Vasseur said. “The correlation between computer models, the wind tunnel, and the track has been very good over the past few years, and we haven’t had any issues with it. It’s true that with this new project, we will need to establish a new correlation. This will be one of our focuses during the Barcelona test. Unlike last year, which was a continuation of previous ones, everything is unknown now, but that applies to everyone,” the Ferrari boss added.