Ferrari’s Vasseur says where F1 season ends will impact development chances

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur believes any changes to the schedule of the final races of the 2026 Formula 1 season could open up more development opportunities for teams.

F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali has previously outlined a final decision on whether the season can end in Qatar and Abu Dhabi as planned will be taken mid-September, due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding the conflict with Iran. A European replacement round would be used if Qatar and Abu Dhabi don’t go ahead, and Vasseur says there are a number of potential impacts but that one race in Europe would cost less and give teams more money for car upgrades.

“Engine usage, it's true that it's not mega easy to build up something if you don't know if you still have 10 or 12 races to go, but I think we have enough margin to cope with this,” Vasseur said. “The development plan is not changing because it's the last two – we won't bring something in the last two.

“Cost cap could be a more tricky point, because the cost of going to Abu Dhabi, Qatar to do two races is huge. And if you don't go there, you can spend [the money] somewhere else before that on development or whatever. I think this is true for us, but it's true for everybody on the grid.

“At one stage we'll have to take a decision, but I think everybody, for logistical reasons, collectively we'll have to take a decision by [the end of] September, because we'll have to send the kits also to the Middle East and we won’t be able to postpone more than this. I think it will be early enough to manage the last six or seven races after September.”

With Ferrari gearing up for its home race in Monza this coming weekend, Vasseur says the key to a strong result will be down to getting the full performance out of the car, having seen how all the front-running teams have the ability to fight for victory if they avoid mistakes.

“We'll do our best. So far this season, sometimes we are not expecting to get the results that we had, sometimes we are expecting to get better results and we struggle a bit more,” he admitted. "But I think there is much more in the execution than in the pure potential. The best lesson of [the Dutch Grand Prix] is that if you want to win, if you want to be in front, you have to do the perfect job.

“It's true for us, but it's true for [George] Russell – he won [the Sprint at Zandvoort] and he was P3 [in the race], not far away from finishing P5. He will have this latitude to move from P1 to P6, in case of good or bad execution. It's true for the top six – or with Max [Verstappen], for the top seven.”