Ferrari

Ferrari set for 'full week' after Lewis Hamilton's chart-topping performance

Sam Cook Wednesday 4 February 2026 15:55

Ferrari F1 star Charles Leclerc has revealed the team's plans following their positive first week of 2026 pre-season testing.

At the private shakedown in Barcelona, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton managed to put in over 400 laps in the new SF-26, while seven-time world champion Hamilton also put in the fastest time of the week on the final day, spreading some positivity within the Maranello-based outfit ahead of the season.

Ferrari did not secure a single grand prix victory in 2025, while Hamilton did not even secure a grand prix podium, in what was a pretty dismal season for the team.

But with new regulations sweeping into the sport in 2026, there is hope that they could potentially challenge closer to the likes of McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull in the upcoming season.

Now, following Barcelona but ahead of the two three-day testing events at the Bahrain International Circuit in February, Leclerc has revealed what is top of the list of priorities for the outfit, hinting that they are set for a busy week in Maranello.

"Full week in Maranello next week," Leclerc told F1TV. "We'll work on analysing this test data, lots of simulator and starting to prepare for Bahrain.

"We'll do a couple of tests but the most important part will be the correlation now that we've driven the real car, we'll go on the sim and compare it."

Ferrari's 2026 chances

The new F1 power unit and car design regulations mean that we could well see a shake up in the competitive order of the sport in 2026.

The initial testing sessions were expected to see reliability issues for many teams with it being the first time that they had tried out their 2026 machinery, but all 10 teams that were present displayed incredible reliability given the early stage of testing.

And Ferrari will have been encouraged by not only their performance, but the performance of customer team Haas, who managed to put in some mammoth stints with the Ferrari power unit in the back of their car.

While Mercedes seem to be the team to beat in 2026, there's every chance that Ferrari could well be in the hunt for race victories, with the Maranello-based outfit arguably coming out of the first pre-season testing event with the second-most positive vibes after their final day chart-topping success.