With three races still remaining in the 2025 season, all attention seems already focused on next year, marking the start of a new era in Formula 1. Across all teams, the new cars have been extensively tested on simulators for months, and initial conclusions are beginning to take shape. According to reports, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have tested the latest version of the Ferrari 2026 car, providing their assessment on its behavior and the progress made by the team.
Despite the current season still having three intense races remaining, the focus at the Ferrari headquarters in Maranello has entirely shifted to the year 2026—the pivotal starting point of a new and challenging era in Formula 1.
Following a disappointing 2025 season, where the win count for both drivers (Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton) has remained resolutely at zero with just a few races left, Ferrari understands that recovering its honor is paramount.
The immediate goal for the team is to secure second place in the Constructors’ Championship, leapfrogging both Red Bull and Mercedes. However, the current situation is far from favorable, with Ferrari currently languishing in fourth position. Should they fail to achieve the runner-up spot, the Maranello engineers will be allocated even more hours in the wind tunnel to intensively work on the new 2026 Formula 1 car.
The determination is immense: the 2026 car project must have absolutely no room for error. The new era must commence in the best possible manner, progressing step-by-step, year-by-year, until the project reaches its peak development level. This is the Scuderia’s vital opportunity to reassert its status after years away from championship glory.
In this context, teams have spent months extensively testing the new 2026 regulation cars on their simulator systems, and initial conclusions are beginning to surface. As reported by the Italian website Autoracer.it, both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have driven the latest version of the Ferrari 2026 car and provided their individual assessments of its behavior and the progress achieved by the engineering team.
Having completed significant mileage in the simulator, both drivers have gained a clear vision of the car’s potential. Encouragingly, both Hamilton and Leclerc have fully approved the progress made by the engineers. This highly positive evaluation sends a strong signal to the entire team, allowing development work to proceed with renewed confidence and increased motivation.
While the new 2026 regulations still harbor many uncertainties that can only be definitively answered after the first actual on-track tests, the positive feedback from these two star drivers is invaluable. It suggests that Ferrari has established a solid foundation upon which to build its hopes and prepare for the fierce competition that the forthcoming era is guaranteed to bring.
