Source:REUTERS/Go Nakamura
[Saba Sports News] Although they sat comfortably in second place at the start of the season, Ferrari still finds it difficult to unsettle Mercedes’ dominance. On this, former Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo bluntly said the SF-26 is not a car capable of winning a world championship — the gap to the Mercedes car is quite striking. In the first two rounds of the 2026 season, Mercedes quickly established a lead as George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli took back-to-back victories. For Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc both reached the podium on occasion but were never able to match their rivals’ pace. The race data is even more telling: at the Australian Grand Prix Leclerc finished 15 seconds behind Russell, and at the Chinese Grand Prix Hamilton was dropped by Antonelli by more than 25 seconds. Afterwards Hamilton also admitted that Mercedes’ race advantage could be as much as 0.5 seconds per lap, making it difficult to catch them in the short term. Therefore, Montezemolo believes Ferrari’s car is competitive but far from championship level.
The editor thinks Mercedes’ core advantage lies in straight-line acceleration and energy deployment phases, maintaining higher output with less decay at the end of long straights. For Ferrari, finding a breakthrough in the power unit and energy-management strategy will be key to closing the gap.