Ferrari arrived in Miami carrying what the paddock considered its largest upgrade package of the 2026 season. The team brought a meaningful set of new parts to Florida, and Charles Leclerc topped the sprint weekend’s only practice session to give the Scuderia genuine encouragement that the SF-26 was closing ground.
Lewis Hamilton sat fourth in that same session. Then SQ3 happened, and the wheels came off. Not from a lack of driving, but from a software gremlin that robbed both Ferrari drivers of straight-line speed when it mattered most.
Leclerc suffered a sudden dip in power in the final stretch between Turn 16 and Turn 17 on his only soft-tyre run in SQ3, while Hamilton had the same issue on both main straights – a problem that contributed directly to the four-tenth gap between the two Ferrari drivers and left Max Verstappen splitting them on the grid.
Hamilton was open about what he felt. “I think, yesterday I lost three tenths just because software wasn’t working properly, so driving the same but losing down the straights. In the race it seemed that it continued from qualifying.”
The Fix Ferrari Needs Before Sunday
Hamilton came home seventh in the Sprint itself, crossing the line over 21 seconds behind race winner Lando Norris and some way adrift of Leclerc in third.
It was not a collapse in form. It was the same energy deployment problem repeating itself under race conditions, and Hamilton’s comments following the race made clear he expects the team to act on it before qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix.
“I think they’re gonna have to do some software changes or something to make sure that doesn’t happen going into qualifying.” He added: “Hopefully we have slightly better deployment and yeah the set up is in the wrong place, definitely will make some big changes going into qualifying.”
Ferrari had reportedly been working on revised battery management and energy deployment algorithms specifically for this weekend, with the aim of addressing the superclipping issues that have plagued the SF-26.
Based on Hamilton’s comments after the Sprint, that fix wasn’t totally working.
With Mercedes now under pressure at this circuit, most of us expected Ferrari to step into the gap. Instead it was McLaren who have pushed forward, leaving Maranello searching for answers about why the SF-26 can’t consistently extract what it appears capable of in practice.
Practice pace that evaporates the moment the pressure is highest is not a car that’s ready to challenge for a championship. Hamilton knows it. The question is whether Ferrari can solve a software problem before Saturday night’s qualifying session because if the straights are still bleeding time, no setup change is going to cover the gap.
