Lewis Hamilton's F1 boss confident of FIA Ferrari decision: 'A new championship will begin'

Hamilton looking serious next to smiling Vasseur, both in Ferrari F1 kit with blue and white FIA flag background — Photo: © IMAGO

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Lewis Hamilton's F1 boss confident of FIA Ferrari decision: 'A new championship will begin'

Ferrari are awaiting a make or break decision from the FIA

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Monday 30 March 2026 09:12

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Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari F1 boss Fred Vasseur has issued a very confident verdict regarding a pending FIA decision, which could make or break the Scuderia's season.

From 2026 onwards, F1 has completely overhauled the power unit and chassis rules, ushering in a new regulations cycle for the sport that has proved rather unpopular.

The new ruleset has tripled the focus on electrical energy output, much to the dismay of many drivers such as Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, with the latter calling the way the new regulations manifest during qualifying, 'a f****** joke' during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

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But it's not all doom and gloom for Hamilton, Leclerc and their Ferrari F1 squad, who have proved to be competitive off the line so far this season thanks to their lightning fast starting procedure.

They are however still off the pace of the Mercedes during a full-length race, with seven-time champion Hamilton admitting that he feared that the strength of the Mercedes power unit may begin to benefit customer team McLaren in the coming months, causing the Italian squad to slip down the order.

But this could be prevented if the FIA grant Vasseur's team an exception, allowing them to upgrade their slightly underperforming power unit.

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Vasseur: Miami will kickstart new championship

After Ferrari's qualifying at Suzuka on Saturday where Leclerc could be heard giving his X-rated assessment of the new rules over team radio, Vasseur spoke to Sky Sports Italia

The Ferrari team principal assessed Leclerc and Hamilton's qualifying results of P4 and P6 respectively, saying: "We performed better in Q2 than in Q3; we need to understand why and extract more from the car’s potential. Let’s focus on the race, with a good start and a smart strategy. We’ll do our best; we’ve already been competing with Mercedes.

The Frenchman then shed light on how he believed the FIA's pending decision on giving Ferrari and their fellow power unit manufacturers Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) could benefit the Scuderia, hinting that they will really be able to bring the fight to the Silver Arrows from May onwards.

"The aim is always to win races, but we’re scoring plenty of points and a new championship will begin in Miami," Vasseur declared.

What is ADUO?

For 2026, the FIA have introduced a safety net of sorts for struggling power unit manufacturers, and whilst Ferrari are nowhere near as in need of additional upgrade opportunities as Aston Martin and their works partners Honda, they could still qualify.

To be eligible for ADUO or Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities, PU manufacturers must meet a specific criteria.

According to Article 4 of Appendix 4 of the new technical regulations, a manufacturer qualifies for the upgrades if their: "ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Performance Index is at least two per cent but less than four per cent below the best-performing ICE."

They are then eligible for one additional homologation upgrade in the qualifying year (i.e. 2026) and one additional homologation upgrade in the following season.

If their ICE Performance Index is 'at least four per cent below the best-performing ICE', a power unit manufacturer can then receive two additional homologation upgrades in the qualifying year and two additional homologation upgrades in the following year.

But ADUO can only be bestowed at specific points in the year, every six races in fact.

So, when the calendar was made up of 24 grands prix, this meant that the first ADUO opportunity would come after the Miami Grand Prix.

However, now that next month's Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix have been cancelled, the Miami weekend is only the fourth on the 2026 calendar, meaning that if the PU manufacturers have to wait until the sixth race, they wouldn't qualify for ADUO until after the Monaco GP in June.

But F1's governing body have reportedly submitted a proposal to have the date brought forward so that the additional upgrade opportunities can be introduced after Miami, something Vasseur is clearly confident of.

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

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F1 Ferrari FIA Fred Vasseur