Ralf Schumacher spots Ferrari's "huge advantage" ahead of 2026 F1 season

Ralf Schumacher has identified what could be a "huge advantage" for Ferrari in the upcoming 2026 Formula 1 season.

As the teams are making the most of pre-season testing in Bahrain ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 6-8 March, Schumacher saw a noticeable difference in the way the Ferrari cars were able to take corners in comparison to its rivals.

"Yes, it looks tidy, and the Ferrari is noticeably calm," the former driver said on the Backstage Boxengasse podcast. "All the others have this kind of misfiring effect when accelerating out of the corner. It sounds quite strange when that energy-recovery system comes into play.

"With the Ferrari, it sounds much smoother. Something has clearly been done differently there. And of course, if the driver doesn’t have to downshift as much, the car also avoids some of the balance issues that others have been experiencing.

"It was visible on track: either they run wide through the corner—meaning the front wheel locks—or the rear briefly locks, which leads to oversteer if the driver selects a gear that is too low, or in some cases too high. So it’s definitely not easy.

"And if the Ferrari can simply roll through the corner cleanly, that’s a huge advantage. First of all in terms of drivability, but also for the tyres, because they have to work less."

Both Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have been positive about testing so far. On the first day of testing of the second week in Bahrain, Leclerc completed 70 laps in the morning before Hamilton completed 47 in the afternoon.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

"We went through our programme in the morning without any issues," the Monegasque driver said. "For now it’s very difficult to read much into performance and we are not focused on that. We’ve completed many laps which is a positive and we will keep pushing in the right direction."

Hamilton added after his stint: "It was a solid day, as we managed to complete a good amount of running, which is positive. We had a small issue during my session, but the team did a great job to get me back out on track to do some long runs.

"I feel like we’ve made progress compared to last week and I’m continuing to build my understanding of the car. We’re still working on fine-tuning the balance, but we’re moving in the right direction."