Ferrari Investigate SF-26 After Scoring Six Points to Red Bull's 33 in Brazil

Ferrari will investigate the SF-26 after Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, in which Charles Leclerc finished eighth and Lewis Hamilton a lapped ninth. The pair scored six points between them at Interlagos while Red Bull took 33, cutting Ferrari’s advantage in second place in the constructors’ championship to 95 points with three rounds remaining. PlanetF1 reported that Hamilton was devastated afterwards. On the evidence of the afternoon, the team has reason to be alarmed as well.

A weekend lost on Saturday and never recovered on Sunday

The damage began with the grid. Leclerc started 14th and Hamilton 20th, so neither Ferrari lined up in the top 10 at a circuit where track position and clean air matter. That alone would have made for a difficult afternoon. What turns a difficult afternoon into an investigation is how little ground the cars made up.

Leclerc gained six places. Hamilton gained 11, but still finished a lap behind Lando Norris, who won from pole for his third victory of the season. Only eight cars finished on the lead lap, and Leclerc was the last of them. For a team with two wins this year, one for each driver, hanging on to the lead lap is a long way below its standard.

The scale of the shortfall is clearer against Ferrari’s own average. Across 20 rounds the team has scored 510 points, roughly 25.5 per weekend. Six points is less than a quarter of that. One bad weekend in a 23-round season can usually be absorbed. This one arrived with the constructors’ runner-up spot still open and both Ferrari drivers locked in close fights in the drivers’ standings, which is why it has prompted a formal look at the car rather than a shrug about a poor qualifying.

The yardstick Verstappen set from 21st

Max Verstappen is the reason Ferrari cannot put Sunday down to grid position. He started 21st, one place behind Hamilton, and finished second. RacingNews365’s post-race discussion called his drive clinical, and that is fair. Verstappen made up 19 places and, from the penultimate grid slot, beat Norris’s team-mate Oscar Piastri, both Mercedes and both Ferraris.

Red Bull’s afternoon was not a one-man effort, either. Isack Hadjar converted fifth on the grid into third, giving Red Bull a double podium and 33 points. McLaren matched that total with Norris’s win and Piastri’s sixth from 10th.

Recovery drives of that kind need a car that can follow closely without overheating its tyres, hold its pace over long stints and attack under the 2026 power unit rules, which make far greater demands of electrical energy management. Verstappen’s car plainly had those qualities on Sunday. Hamilton started in a similar position and ran in similar traffic, yet lost a lap to the leader. The difference between the two drives is the clearest measure of what the SF-26 lacked.

Mercedes had an untidy day too. Andrea Kimi Antonelli started second and finished fifth, with George Russell fourth from seventh. Ferrari therefore cannot argue that Interlagos simply suited one dominant car. The teams around them in the championship found speed on Sunday, and Ferrari did not.

Ninety-five points, and a tie-break that favours Red Bull

The constructors’ table after Brazil shows how much the gaps moved in a single afternoon.

Pos	Team	Points	Wins	Brazil haul
1	Mercedes	652	12	22
2	Ferrari	510	2	6
3	Red Bull	415	3	33
4	McLaren	398	3	33

Ninety-five points is a substantial cushion, but there is a detail Ferrari will not have missed. If the teams finished level on points, the tie would be broken on wins, and Red Bull currently lead that count three to two. As things stand, Red Bull therefore need to outscore Ferrari by 95 across three rounds, not 96. That works out at nearly 32 points a weekend.

Brazil produced a 27-point swing. On Grand Prix points alone, a repeat of that result at each of the final three races would still leave Red Bull 14 points short. To overhaul Ferrari, Red Bull would need to keep up their Interlagos form and Ferrari would need to fall even further below theirs. That is unlikely, but it can no longer be dismissed, and it explains why some outlets are describing Ferrari’s position as a now-or-never problem.

McLaren, 112 points behind Ferrari, are a more distant threat on the same arithmetic. They are still a sign that two teams finished Sunday with momentum Ferrari did not have.

Ferrari also know from experience how costly a late slide can be. In 2023 they missed second place to Mercedes by three points. The runner-up position carries prize money and standing within the sport. For a Ferrari that has not won a constructors’ title since 2008, it is also the clearest evidence the team can offer that the project is moving forward.

Leclerc, Hamilton and a crowded fight behind Antonelli

The drivers’ title is settled. Antonelli leads by 111 points, more than any rival can score in three rounds, after a season that has brought him nine wins. Behind him, however, the fight for the remaining top-six places is unusually tight:

• 2. Verstappen 279 points
• 3. Russell 262
• 4. Hamilton 261
• 5. Leclerc 249
• 6. Norris 246

Hamilton is one point behind Russell for third and 18 behind Verstappen for second. Leclerc is 12 points behind his team-mate and only three ahead of Norris. Each Ferrari driver therefore has a personal fight that could turn on a handful of points, and if the SF-26 does not improve, the two are likely to find themselves racing each other in the midfield.

That would be awkward even without the recent on-track skirmishes between the pair. Those clashes have been sharp enough to prompt Carlos Sainz, speaking to GPfans, to reflect on his own time alongside Leclerc, including friction with a vocal section of the Monegasque’s supporters. Ferrari have seen where an unmanaged rivalry can lead. At Interlagos in 2019, Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc collided late in the race and both retired, costing the team a near-certain points finish.

The team’s priority is simple. Every point counts towards the constructors’ table, and it makes no difference to that table whether Hamilton or Leclerc scores them. The drivers’ priorities are different, and with three rounds left there is little reason for either to concede ground. The pit wall needs to set clear rules of engagement before Las Vegas, not after the next incident.

What the investigation must answer before Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Grand Prix on 22 November gives Ferrari 13 days. The investigation has to answer three distinct questions. The first is whether the qualifying deficit and the race deficit share a cause or are two separate problems. The second is whether the car was pushed into a set-up window it could not escape, or whether Interlagos exposed a weakness in the SF-26’s design. The third is why both cars struggled in a race where rivals starting in similar positions made far more progress. Each answer would point to a very different fix.

Las Vegas is a poor place to test any conclusion. It is a cold, low-downforce street circuit dominated by long straights, almost the opposite of Interlagos. A strong result there would not prove the Brazil problem has been solved, and a weak one would not prove it has not.

The real value of this inquiry lies beyond the final three rounds. Ferrari will very probably keep second place: Red Bull would need to better their Interlagos haul while Ferrari fell short of even Sunday’s six points, and both would have to happen at every remaining race. The more important question is whether the team can explain why a car that has won two races this year could make so little progress from the midfield at Interlagos. In the first season of new regulations, understanding the SF-26’s limits is the most useful thing Ferrari can take into the 2027 car.

If Ferrari leave Las Vegas still 90 or more points clear, second place is effectively secure. Whether the investigation tells them anything that makes 2027 different is the verdict that matters.