“If they make improvements on the engine side, they’ll embarrass everyone,” says Lando Norris of the increasing threat from Maranello.
After all the false starts, things finally came good on Sunday for Lewis Hamilton and his team, neither of which had been atop an F1 podium since 2024.
We say false starts because, particularly in Ferrari’s case, over the years we have seen distinct signs of promise only for it all to fall apart.
Apart from all else, Sunday proved that the Italian team can even get its strategy right, and fearful that the Scuderia is finally getting all its ducks in a row, coupled with the resurgence of arguably one of the greatest drivers to grace the sport, rivals are beginning to take notice.
“We’re lucky that Ferrari doesn’t have a better engine at the minute,” Lando Norris told Sky Sports in the moments after Sunday’s race. “If they had a better engine, they’re dominating,” he added.
“They’re the class of the field in terms of cornering performance at the minute,” he continued. “We’re not even close to them. It’s the realistic point of it. We’re a long, long way from where we need to be.
“If they make improvements on the engine side, then they’ll embarrass everyone,” he warned. “We need to really get our heads down and see what improvements we can do.”
And as if on cue, Ferrari will be able to make improvements courtesy of the controversial Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system, essentially the ‘get out of jail’ card handed to the Italian team – and championship leaders Mercedes – following the FIA deeming that Red Bull has the most powerful ICE.
“We see, especially in the medium speed corners, that Ferrari is the fastest, not necessarily the fastest in the straights,” said team boss Andrea Stella. “We see that, from a McLaren point of view, we are competitive in the high-speed corners, like corners 3, 9, and 14, but overall we struggle with grip in medium-speed and low-speed.”
Barcelona has traditionally been the circuit at which teams introduced their first big upgrades of the season, but last week it was really only the Italian team that arrived with a sizeable package.
“They were able to upgrade their car, they gained performance and now they are winning races,” said Stella. “So, definitely there is work to do with the car performance,” he added, referring to his own team.