Formula 1 is on break. Cars are in factories, drivers at home, mechanics resting. But Ferrari is not resting. While the paddock waits for the Miami Grand Prix on May 3rd, the Scuderia has been executing weeks of on-track work combining development, data collection and preparation for what could be the most important race weekend of their season.
On Thursday and Friday of this week, Lewis Hamilton completed two full days of testing at Ferrari’s private Fiorano circuit in the SF-26, the car Ferrari is competing with in the 2026 season. The official objective was a tyre development programme for Pirelli, which needed data on its wet compound tyres, both Intermediate and Full Wet, in artificially wet conditions created by the circuit’s irrigation system. But for Ferrari, every lap carries far greater added value.
Hamilton completed 142 laps on the first day, accumulating 423 kilometres. His best time was a 1m01.031s. Pirelli confirmed the test covered different Full Wet configurations in the morning and several runs on Intermediate tyre variants in the afternoon. On the second day, Pirelli expressed a preference to keep the same driver for uniform evaluation criteria and Hamilton returned to the car. In total the two days added up to 884 kilometres, nearly two Grand Prix distances.
Charles Leclerc did not take part in the test. The Monegasque spent both days in the simulator at Maranello working on car development for Miami. Fred Vasseur, team principal, visited the Fiorano garage on Thursday to personally monitor part of the work a signal of the level of attention Ferrari is paying to every centimetre of available data during this enforced championship break.
The context explains everything. Mercedes leads the championship with Kimi Antonelli on 72 points and George Russell on 63. Ferrari has Leclerc third on 49 and Hamilton fourth with a gap that already distances him from the top two positions. The SF-26 is the second-best car on the grid in race pace terms, but Mercedes holds a power unit advantage that is especially visible in high speed sectors and long straights.
Vasseur had promised an important upgrade package for Bahrain, the cancelled race. With the extra time gained from the April break, that package becomes what the team principal himself described as “a package and a half” for Miami. In addition, according to confirmed information from Maranello, Ferrari has prepared what has been dubbed the “Macarena Wing”, an inverted wing concept designed to optimise aerodynamic efficiency on straights and gain top speed. The target is to directly counter Mercedes’ engine advantage.
On April 22nd, Leclerc will drive the SF-26 on a filming day at Monza, a circuit chosen deliberately because it is one of the most demanding tracks on the 2026 calendar in terms of energy management. That day will allow Ferrari to optimise its power unit and test components of the Miami package.
The April break is giving Ferrari exactly what the team needed: time to attack rather than react.
Sources: Formula1.com official, PlanetF1, Crash.net, GPFans, RacingNews365, Motorsport Week, Scuderia Fans, Autosport, Motorsport.com
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