Ferrari left Miami surrounded by doubts in Formula 1. The updates brought by the Italian team for the United States stage fell short of expectations and are already causing concern about the direction of the 2026 season.
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The analysis was made by Karun Chandhok, former driver and Sky Sports commentator. According to him, the package presented by Ferrari failed to deliver the expected performance leap at an important moment in the championship, especially given the progress shown by McLaren and Mercedes on the same weekend.
“If this was Ferrari’s big update for this first part of the season, then McLaren and Mercedes will not be worried,” Chandhok said. The commentator highlighted that Miami seemed to be the ideal race to put the Maranello team ahead of rivals, but the scenario ended up being the opposite. “I have the feeling they fell behind. For me, there should be some concern in Maranello,” he added.
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The stage ended with a victory for Kimi Antonelli, from Mercedes, while Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri put McLaren on the podium. Ferrari saw Lewis Hamilton finish only sixth, while Charles Leclerc dropped to eighth after receiving a twenty-second penalty. Chandhok believes the Italian team needs to find more performance in the parts introduced in Miami to avoid losing even more ground in the upcoming races.
“They need to think if there is still hidden performance in this package, because otherwise they will be overtaken when McLaren brings new parts to Canada and Mercedes presents its big update,” he explained. David Croft, the main Sky Sports F1 commentator, also questioned the behavior of the Ferrari car during the races. “I hope there is another update package being prepared in Maranello that works better, because otherwise they will be in trouble,” he concluded.
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