Ferrari and Red Bull unleash fresh upgrades in Mercedes F1 chase

Ferrari and Red Bull have both unleashed sizeable upgrade packages at the Japanese GP as they try to reel in the dominant Mercedes cars.

So far in 2026, Mercedes has qualified one-two for both grands prix and the China Sprint, and taken one-two finishes in both races, and a one-five in the Sprint. 

The W17 has proved the class of the field, but Ferrari has armed the SF-26, and Red Bull the RB22, with fresh parts for round three of the season.

For Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have been given a new front corner design, comprised of a small front brake duct geometry, designed to trade off braking cooling for aerodynamic benefits.

The front floor stay fairing has also been upgraded to improve the airflow structures downstream of the car to the diffuser.

For Red Bull, a new revised sidepod inlet, engine cover and floor have been delivered for Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, with the overall aim of improving efficiency, with the new floor designed to take the increased loads which are being created.

In FP1, Mercedes (with no upgrades) led yet another session with a one-two as McLaren (following in Mercedes' lead with no MCL40 upgrades) finished three-four.

Leclerc beat Hamilton for fifth, with the top six drivers all within 0.3s of George Russell. 

Verstappen was seventh, 0.761s slower than the pace-setting Mercedes.

The article continues below.

Upgrades upgrades upgrades

Elsewhere, Aston Martin and Alpine have delivered big packages to Japan. 

For the AMR22, a new front wing design and floor body have been created at Silverstone. The chord of the front wing profile has been shortened, which is working in conjunction with a new end-plate to better distribute load at the outboard ends of the wing. 

A new floor, with revisions to the leading edges on offer for Fernando Alonso - who missed FP1 for Jak Crawford - and Lance Stroll.

Enstone's new package of parts for Alpine focuses all over the car, with a new front air deflector being designed to improve the consistency of the feeling across the wing in a variety of conditions, and the rear wing straight line mode actuator has been tweaked to eke out more performance.

The rear wing end-plates have been upgraded to improve airflow conditioning and local downforce.

Meanwhile, Cadillac has a brand-new diffuser to "enhance overall ride-height behaviour and improve aerodynamic performance across the operating envelope" whilst the trailing edge of it has also been tweaked to "increase overall rear aerodynamic load."

Williams has a new front suspension, focusing on structural improvements, with the redesigned internals making sure that the impact on airflow downstream of the FW47 is minimised.

Finally, Haas has simplified the front wing straight line mode linkage, enabling a tighter packaging of the accutator and "decrease blockage and consequently improve the airflow directed towards the rear of the car."

Like Mercedes and McLaren, both Racing Bulls and Audi have not brought any new parts to Japan.