Fred Vasseur reveals 'aggressive' plan for new Ferrari car

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur has said the Italian team will finish its 2026 F1 car the day before its launch on Friday, 23 January.

The 57-year-old explained that the Maranello-based squad has adopted this approach to be as "aggressive" as possible — and in anticipation of rival teams doing the same thing.

After shaking down the new car at its Fiorano circuit, the Scuderia will travel to Barcelona for the private test, which commences on Monday, 26 January.

That five-day event behind closed doors at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will see each team run for three of those days. That will be followed by two official three-day tests in Bahrain in February. 

The extended running is to allow teams to be as well prepared as possible for the new season after sweeping power unit and chassis regulation changes over the winter.

When the rules were last reset in 2022, Mercedes in particular arrived at the start of the campaign with a drastically different-looking car to its rivals, in a similar way to Ferrari itself in 1996.

When asked about how the Prancing Horse would tackle the development of its new car, and whether it was going to be taking risks or being more conservative, Vasseur dismissed the suggestion.

"Nobody is conservative or aggressive or taking risks," the Frenchman told media, including RacingNews365, at Ferrari's end-of-year press debrief.

"It's quite often when you discover what the others did that you say: 'Oh, I was mega aggressive,' or 'I was mega conservative'.

"But, honestly, I can't speak about the others... I don't know what the others have done, but it's true that you will have the picture in — Barcelona, I don't think so, but let's say — Bahrain, and you will see that different teams took different directions, sometimes, perhaps a bit at 180 degrees.

"But we don't have the feeling to be aggressive or not, we are taking options."

Where Ferrari will be 'aggressive'

Charles Leclerc said towards the end of the season that 2026 will be "now or never" for Ferrari. However, his boss does not completely agree with that perspective.

"For sure, if you have someone starting the new era with a one-second gap, it's much better for the next four years," Vasseur stated. "This is obvious, and it's an important step and an important corner.

"But I'm also really convinced that in 2025, the picture of Bahrain T01 [the only pre-season test] was almost the picture of Abu Dhabi [at the] last race.

"And, next year, you will have a huge rate of development all over the season. It's more like '22, or that kind of season. It means that just because someone will be in front at the beginning of '26, that it will be in front at the end of '26, and at the front in '27.

"But for sure, as everybody, as every single team, as every single driver, we would prefer to start in good shape at the beginning of '26"

Where Ferrari will be aggressive, however, is in its preparation for pre-season, with work planned up until the last possible moment ahead of its car launch and the behind-closed-doors test in Spain.

"But what is aggressive is to postpone the release of the drawings, to arrive at the last minute in Barcelona, or in Bahrain, with the car and do the assembly in the garage," Vasseur said.

"This is aggressive. If you want to finish one month before, it's not aggressive at all; it's conservative.

"But this will be aggressive, for sure, because we were always, and we will finish the assembly of the car the day before the launch...

"It will mean that we'll finish the car on the 22nd, and this is to be aggressive, but [also] because everybody will do the same.

"Now we have a kind of convergence in the approach to the season, and everybody will be in the same mood."