Ferrari left the Dutch Formula 1 GP with the feeling of having wasted another podium opportunity in 2026. Despite the competitive pace shown by the SF-26 in Zandvoort, the Italian team finished only in fourth position with Lewis Hamilton and fifth with Charles Leclerc. For Fred Vasseur, the difference was in the execution.
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The Ferrari boss ordered a detailed review after identifying a sequence of errors that caused the Maranello team to lose positions throughout the race. Starts, pit stops, and strategic decisions will be examined by the team to understand how a car capable of keeping up with rivals failed to convert that performance into a better result.
Hamilton even contended for third place in the final laps, while Leclerc also showed enough speed to indicate that Ferrari could have put more pressure on their rivals. The result, however, was marked by the need to recover positions after moments that compromised the race.
Vasseur finds it particularly frustrating that the race pace was, in his assessment, superior to that shown by Mercedes. Still, operational failures prevented this potential advantage from being converted into a podium: “Yes, the pace was decent in the race, but we had some problems with execution,” he told Sky Sports F1. “We had a bad start with Charles at the second start. We lost position to Piastri, who was on hard tires, and we lost a lot of time in that stage of the race.”
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The loss of position to Piastri happened at the second start, when Leclerc was on soft tires and the rival driver was using hard compounds. The episode, followed by the Monegasque’s problematic pit stop, increased the time lost by Ferrari and forced the team to work for much of the race to recover ground.
“And then we had a bad pit stop with Charles, and we lost position again. It’s a kind of mess, and it’s a shame because I think the pace was strong; I think at least stronger than Mercedes’. But it is what it is — now we have to take a deep look at what we did and what we did wrong, to understand why we lost position at the start on soft tires, and try to do better next week,” he concluded.
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