Ferrari confirm launch date for 2026 Formula 1 campaign
Ferrari have confirmed that they will officially begin their 2026 Formula 1 campaign with a car launch on January 23, just three days before private pre-season testing gets underway in Barcelona.
The Scuderia are keeping details of the event under wraps, but Team Principal Fred Vasseur confirmed the date during Ferrari’s annual end-of-season press conference at Fiorano.
Busy launch day across the grid
Ferrari’s launch will take place on the same day that Alpine are set to unveil their 2026 challenger in Barcelona, while Haas are expected to reveal their plans via a digital launch, making January 23 a key date in the build-up to the new season.
Vasseur: “Aggression is about timing”
When asked whether Ferrari would be taking a high-risk approach under the sweeping new chassis and power unit regulations for 2026, Vasseur played down the idea of teams clearly falling into “aggressive” or “conservative” camps.
“Nobody is conservative or aggressive or taking risks,” Vasseur explained. “Quite often you only realise afterwards, when you see what the others have done.”
However, Vasseur did acknowledge that Ferrari would be pushing hard on timelines rather than holding back development.
“What is aggressive is to postpone the release of drawings at max, to arrive in the last minute in Barcelona or Bahrain with a car that will be assembled in the garage,” he said.
“We will be aggressive for sure. We will finish the assembly of the car the day before the launch. The launch will be the 23rd of January, which means we will finish the car on the 22nd.”
Vasseur added that Ferrari’s approach is increasingly becoming the norm across the grid, with teams converging around similar preparation strategies ahead of the new regulations.
A fresh start after a tough 2025
Ferrari head into 2026 looking to rebound from a winless 2025 season, which saw the team finish fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, behind McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull.
That result marked a significant drop compared to 2024, when Ferrari pushed McLaren all the way to the final race in the fight for the Teams’ title.
Stable driver line-up for the new era
The Italian outfit will retain an unchanged driver pairing for 2026, with Charles Leclerc entering his eighth season with Ferrari alongside seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who will contest his second year in red.
With a fresh ruleset and a tightly packed grid expected, Ferrari’s January launch will offer the first real glimpse into how seriously they can challenge at the start of Formula 1’s next era.
