Ferrari's 'resounding flop' and 'high-profile exits' - How Lewis Hamilton F1 title dream died

Ferrari's 2026 power unit has been branded a 'resounding flop' by Italian media with the chances of Lewis Hamilton winning a record eighth world championship now all but over.

Mercedes made a dominant start to the season, but aggressive Ferrari upgrades and a win at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix meant that Hamilton emerged as Kimi Antonelli's closest challenger for the drivers' title heading into the summer break.

As F1 paused following the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton trailed the young Italian by 50 points, but just three grands prix later, that lead has more than doubled with the Brit now 101 points behind after a DNF in Madrid last time out.

With nine rounds of the season remaining, he is mathematically still in the hunt, but it would take an absolute miracle (and then some) to win it from here.

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Ferrari's 'resounding flop' the culprit?

Even Ferrari's new spec power units have not been enough to save the seven-time world champion's chances.

Compared to rivals such as Mercedes and Red Bull, the engine in the SF-26 has been seen as one of Ferrari's key weaknesses this season. The FIA's ADUO benchmarking suggests it is more than four per cent behind Red Bull's power unit, considered the current best on the grid.

That benchmarking allowed Ferrari to bring two upgrades - first at the Austrian Grand Prix and later at the Italian Grand Prix. But they still haven't done enough to close the gap at the front.

Now, Italian outlet AutoRacer.it claims that at no point this year did Ferrari think they could close the gap on Mercedes by using the ADUO opportunities available to them, with the work on their power unit done ahead of the season branded a 'resounding flop'.

That so-called 'resounding flop' over the winter and in recent years had consequences, with the Italian publication then touching upon some of the 'high-profile exits' from Maranello's engine department ahead of 2026.

Wolf Zimmermann joined Ferrari as their head of ICE research and development in 2014 and was leading their 2026 power unit project when he was poached by Audi to work on their power unit, along with his assistant Lars Schmidt, ahead of the new campaign.

Ferrari set to go in new direction

As such, Autoracer.it describes Ferrari's 2026 power unit as an 'an almost emergency project', but not one that the team truly thought could bring success.

The Italian publication claims that Ferrari are now set to have a completely new specification of power unit when 2027 arrives, with two further updates allowed through the ADUO system.

Ferrari's power unit technical director Enrico Gualtieri is the man leading the push to turn things around ahead of next season, working with a group that has been revamped and reportedly added to by seeking the services of former Renault employees after Alpine switched to Mercedes power units.

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Simmey Hannifin Donaldson - F1 Editor

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