Vasseur: First F1 2026 test about mileage and not "pure performance"

Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur reckons “pure performance” is quite irrelevant at the first pre-season test for the 2026 Formula 1 season due to the regulation change coming in.

The 2026 campaign will introduce changes to both the power unit and chassis, as cars will become lighter and smaller and there’ll be more emphasis on electrical power. 

With a huge regulation switch for the upcoming year, there will be three separate pre-season tests: Barcelona (26-30 January), Bahrain (11-13 February) and Bahrain again (18-20 February).

Barcelona is even a private test to give teams the opportunity to adapt to the new rules without the beady eye of the public, ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 6-8 March. 

“We are not used to nine test days,” said Vasseur. “The last four or five seasons, we did three. It's an advantage, but it's also a completely different programme.

“It means that the first target in this kind of season is to get the reliability. First we need to get mileage. It's also what we want to avoid compared to 2025, is that when we were lost at the beginning of the season with the disqualification, we lost mileage, we lost reference, and then you are running after this. 

Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari

Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images

“It's a long process. It means that the first focus in Barcelona will be to get mileage with the car, to understand the reliability of the car, where we have to improve and what we have to react to because if you understand something in Bahrain, you won't have time to react for Australia.

“Barcelona will be, for sure, to get mileage, more than pure performance.”

The Ferrari team principal even thinks that everybody will arrive at the first test “with not a mule car, but let’s say a spec A” that should look very different to the one which hits the Melbourne track. 

It is such development which Vasseur therefore thinks will define the upcoming regulation era, as Ferrari bids for its first title since the 2008 constructors’ championship. 

“Next year it won't be about the first picture of the season, it won't be all about the classification of Australia, it will be a lot about development and capacity of quick development,” said Vasseur, whose team finished fourth in the 2025 standings.

“That season won't be over in Australia for sure, it doesn't matter if we are P1 or P10, but it will be a long way until the end, it will be a long way for everybody.”

Additional reporting by Stuart Codling