As the regulatory overhaul of Formula 1 inches closer, Ferrari is reportedly set to take some bold steps in a much-needed bid to rediscover its winning touch.
The Scuderia endured a miserable 2025 campaign, its first win-less one since 2021, with marquee signing Lewis Hamilton failing to finish higher than fourth across the 24-race calendar.
Its SF-25 challenger was fraught with a myriad of issues that saw both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc struggle over the season, the latter often out-driving the much-maligned machine.
It led to the Maranello squad finishing fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, a severe comedown from 2024, in which it narrowly lost that title to McLaren in the final round.
And with 2026 bringing a radical new set of technical regulations, there is an added complication of what the team must do to remedy its woes and crack the code of victory again.
Eyes are always on the oldest team in F1, and more so in 2026, as development of its new car was strengthened, in theory at least, by the abandonment of developing the SF-25 in April.
This has left those back in Maranello to plough full steam into Project 678, the codename for the 2026 car, and reports are suggesting of some radical interpretations of the new rules.
The Italian arm of Motorsport.com is reporting that one unique aspect of its power unit will be the addition of a steel alloy head for it, rather than the customary aluminium.
This had already been considered by the initial heads of the project, Wolf Zimmerman and Lars Schmidt, but appeared unlikely to be used upon the pair’s departure to rivals Audi.
The overall engine department head, Enrico Gualtieri, has allegedly had a rethink, and is reconsidering the idea, due to the potential advantages it could make.
Whilst heavier than aluminium, the steel alloy head could prove to provide different pressures and temperatures in the ICE components of the hybrid unit.
Therefore, this means that Ferrari is set to, in essence, unleash two cars for pre-season testing, with the one that is chosen based on performance.
At the first pre-season test, which will be staged behind closed doors in Barcelona next month, will see Ferrari and its rivals thoroughly put their challengers’ reliability to the test.
Then a more complete version of the car will be unveiled at Bahrain for the double-schedule across February 11-13 and 18-20.
Vasseur says Ferrari and rivals will produce two cars for first F1 2026 test
This has essentially been already confirmed by Team Principal Fred Vasseur, who was quoted by Racer as saying: “I think, yes, everybody will do it,” referring to the likelihood teams will all produce more than one version of the same car.
“But in this situation, the most important [thing] is to get mileage. It’s not to chase performance, it’s to get mileage, to validate the technical choice of the car, and then to get performance.
“I think everybody will come in Barcelona with not the real car, but a ‘Spec A.’
“It’s true that we are not used to having nine test days anymore. The last four or five seasons, we did three.
“It’s an advantage, but it’s also a completely different program. It means that the first target for this kind of season is to get reliability.
“You remember perfectly the season 10 or 15 years ago, the first races you had a huge percentage of DNFs.
“It means that first, we need to get mileage.
“Also what we want to avoid compared to 2025 is that when we were lost at the beginning of the season with the disqualification [in China].
“We lost mileage, we lost reference, and then you are [chasing] after this. It’s a long process.
“The first focus in Barcelona, we need to get mileage for the car, to understand the reality of the car, where we have to improve or on what we have to react.
“Because if we want to have something for Bahrain T02, we won’t have time to react for Australia.
“The first target – the promotional day no, but Barcelona – will be for sure to get mileage more than pure performance.”
READ MORE – The one area Ferrari is exercising caution on for 2026 F1 reset
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