MARANELLO, August 10 — Ferrari is not easing off after the summer break. According to Italian outlet AutoRacer IT, relayed by @f1wow, the Scuderia's plan for the rest of 2026 runs through a significant floor upgrade at the Dutch Grand Prix, a turbocharger-focused engine step at Monza, a fourth improvement package in autumn, and groundwork already underway on a deeper engine-architecture change for 2027. It's an aggressive, multi-front push from a team that has arguably the best chassis on the grid but is still giving away horsepower down every straight.
🏁 The Two-Stage Plan: Zandvoort Then Monza
Ferrari's SF-26 has been the quickest chassis through corners for much of 2026, but a straight-line power deficit has repeatedly cost it against Mercedes. The response splits neatly into two stages. First, at Zandvoort for the Dutch Grand Prix (August 21–23), Ferrari brings a significant aerodynamic evolution of the floor — general SF-26 updates suited to a track where short straights make power less decisive and battery recharging less of a headache than at a power-hungry venue like Monza.
Then, at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix on September 6, the story shifts from aero to engine. Team principal Fred Vasseur has been explicit about the intent: Ferrari wants to "keep the pace" with rivals' upgrade programmes, having taken an aggressive, constant development approach with the SF-26 since round one. Charles Leclerc has echoed the urgency, warning the team must stay aggressive after McLaren's leap forward at the Hungarian Grand Prix showed how quickly a good package can reorder the grid.
⚙️ Inside ADUO 2: The Turbo Ferrari Needs
The Monza update centres on Ferrari's second ADUO token — the FIA's Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities mechanism, which grants each manufacturer two in-season engine upgrades for the 2026 power-unit rules (and two more for 2027). Ferrari already spent its first token before the Austrian Grand Prix: combined with a new Shell fuel compound, "ADUO 1" was worth a modest 7–8bhp.
"ADUO 2" is expected to be far more substantial. Reports point to a redesigned turbocharger — revised compressor vanes, a new impeller angle, and updated blade count — alongside changes to the combustion chamber aimed at allowing higher operating temperatures. The engine reportedly carries the internal designation 067/6, currently completing reliability testing in Maranello. The technical root cause is a rules quirk: Ferrari originally fitted a smaller turbo to minimise lag off the line, an advantage erased when the FIA introduced a new five-second pre-start procedure, leaving Ferrari with a straight-line penalty ever since. Current estimates put Ferrari's power unit around 20bhp down on Mercedes' latest specification; the combined two-stage ADUO programme is targeting roughly half of that back, with an internal goal nearer 30bhp across both tokens.
🔧 A Fourth Package — and Eyes Already on 2027
Per the @f1wow/AutoRacer IT report, Ferrari isn't stopping at Monza. A fourth improvement package is pencilled in for autumn, continuing the philosophy Ferrari has followed all year: small, frequent updates rather than banking everything on one big swing (the approach Audi, by contrast, has taken into 2027). That detail hasn't yet been corroborated by English-language outlets at the time of writing, so treat the autumn-package timing as reported rather than confirmed.
What is independently well-sourced is Ferrari's parallel work on a deep evolution of its engine architecture for 2027. Ferrari is deliberately using 2026 as a technical bridge: lessons from the SF-26's development are feeding directly into the next power unit rather than being treated as a separate programme. That plan carries its own risk — if the FIA restricts exhaust-blown aerodynamic concepts for 2027, as has been discussed in the paddock, it could undercut some of the engineering assumptions behind Ferrari's current philosophy.
📊 The Points Gap Ferrari Is Racing Against
The urgency makes sense once you see the table. After Round 11 in Hungary, Mercedes leads the constructors' championship on 379 points to Ferrari's 307 — a 72-point gap with two wins from eleven rounds for the Scuderia. In the drivers' standings, Lewis Hamilton sits second on 169 points, 50 behind championship leader Kimi Antonelli, while Charles Leclerc is fourth on 138, 81 adrift.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 219 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 169 |
| 3 | George Russell | Mercedes | 160 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 138 |
| 5 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 128 |
| 6 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 109 |
Full context on how the season reached this point is in our 2026 mid-season review, and the live, self-updating table — plus the interactive title-fight graph — is always on our championship standings page.
🔮 What's Next
The floor upgrade arrives first, at the Dutch Grand Prix, August 21–23 — a sprint weekend at Zandvoort. Two weeks later, all eyes turn to the far more power-sensitive Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 6, historically Ferrari's home upgrade race and this year the venue for the ADUO 2 engine's debut in front of the Tifosi. Track session times, the countdown, and live results as they land on our Race Hub, and the full run-in on the 2026 race calendar. If the turbo step lands as planned, Monza could be the moment Ferrari's title math starts looking very different.
Reporting: AutoRacer IT (via @f1wow), with corroborating detail from The Race, Motorsport.com and Scuderia Fans. Standings from the Jolpica/Ergast F1 API, correct after Round 11. Upgrade timing and specification remain subject to change before each event.