Ferrari won two Grands Prix in the space of four races earlier this summer.
Now, they have gone five races without even reaching the podium.
Since Charles Leclerc finished second at Spa on July 19, neither Leclerc nor Lewis Hamilton has made the top three in Hungary, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain or Azerbaijan. Ferrari’s best result across that stretch has repeatedly been fourth place.
For a team that appeared to be building genuine momentum after Hamilton won in Barcelona and Leclerc followed with victory at Silverstone, the drop-off looks dramatic.
But there is no single explanation.
Ferrari’s recent slump has been produced by something arguably more frustrating: a competitive car being undermined by a combination of power-unit weakness, inconsistent tyre performance, slower development, reliability problems and messy race execution.
The biggest weakness is becoming harder to hide
Ferrari has known about one weakness in the SF-26 almost from the beginning of the season: straight-line performance.
Team principal Fred Vasseur acknowledged it earlier in the year, but Monza exposed the problem brutally.
Despite introducing its second power-unit development at Ferrari’s home race, Vasseur admitted afterwards that the team was still “missing pure power”. Ferrari could use more electrical deployment to defend on one straight, but doing so meant having less energy available later in the lap.
That creates a particularly difficult problem under Formula 1’s new 2026 regulations.
At Monza, Hamilton simply could not consistently defend against cars with superior straight-line performance. At Baku, another circuit dominated by long full-throttle sections, the problem appeared again.
Leclerc qualified a remarkable second in Azerbaijan, but George Russell’s pole lap was 0.837 seconds faster. On Sunday, Leclerc slipped away from the leaders while Hamilton also struggled for speed on the straights.
A Ferrari that can be excellent through the corners is therefore being forced to compensate elsewhere.
Ferrari’s rivals have moved forward
Perhaps the more worrying development came after Baku.
Leclerc openly called for Ferrari to bring upgrades, saying the team had been “quite far off” Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren during the race.
Vasseur subsequently confirmed that further SF-26 developments are coming.
That is significant because Ferrari’s development programme had previously been one of its strengths.
The team aggressively upgraded the SF-26 through the first half of the season. Major changes arrived around Barcelona, including revisions to the front wing and floor, and that development contributed to the stretch in which Ferrari won in Barcelona and Silverstone and then finished second at Spa.
The problem is that Formula 1 development never happens in isolation.
Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull have continued improving too.
Hamilton summed it up after practice in Azerbaijan: Ferrari had not necessarily gone backwards — “others just took another step”.
That distinction matters.
Ferrari’s car has not suddenly become bad. The competitive benchmark has moved.
The tyre window remains unpredictable
Then there are the tyres.
At Baku, Hamilton said Ferrari struggled to consistently place its tyres in the correct operating window. Austria earlier in the season had exposed the opposite problem, with excessive degradation hurting both cars in hot conditions.
That inconsistency makes the SF-26 difficult to maximise across different circuits and conditions.
There are weekends when Ferrari looks genuinely capable of winning.
In Madrid, Hamilton qualified fourth, only 0.189 seconds from pole, while Leclerc started fifth. Hamilton believed Ferrari had a car capable of fighting for victory before a braking problem ended his race after only seven laps.
Yet two weeks later in Baku, Ferrari could not sustain the pace of the leaders.
The underlying performance is there. Accessing it consistently remains the problem.
Ferrari is also leaving results on the table
Not everything can be blamed on the SF-26.
Hungary should have suited Ferrari. The team had topped Friday practice and entered Sunday with podium expectations. Instead, Leclerc and Hamilton finished fourth and fifth.
Vasseur’s assessment afterwards was unusually direct: “Everything went wrong.”
Starts, pit stops, penalties and race execution all contributed.
Then came Zandvoort.
Hamilton finished just 0.849 seconds behind George Russell in third, but Ferrari’s management of its two cars became part of the story. Hamilton was held behind Leclerc while running on fresher tyres and sarcastically told the team it had been a “great waste of time”.
At Monza, Ferrari had both cars starting near the front.
Within two laps, the opportunity was effectively gone.
Hamilton was forced through the gravel while battling Leclerc at the opening chicane before Leclerc crashed out at Parabolica on Lap 2. Hamilton recovered only to sixth.
Hamilton subsequently said Ferrari needed to change aspects of how the team communicates and manages its drivers.
Madrid added reliability to the list when Hamilton's brake problem caused his first retirement of the season.
Five races. Five very different ways of losing points.
Ferrari’s problem is bigger than outright speed
That may be the most important conclusion from Ferrari’s recent run.
The SF-26 is not fundamentally incapable of competing at the front.
Ferrari has already won races with both Hamilton and Leclerc this season. In Madrid, it again showed enough speed to suggest another victory was possible.
But Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull are currently giving Ferrari very little room for imperfection.
A few tenths lost through straight-line speed. A tyre that falls outside its operating window. A poorly executed qualifying tow. A delayed team decision. A reliability failure. A driver mistake.
Individually, none necessarily destroys a season.
Ferrari is currently experiencing several of them at once.
And that explains the statistic that matters most: since standing on the podium at Spa, Ferrari has gone five consecutive Grands Prix without returning to it.
The speed has not completely disappeared.
Ferrari's ability to convert it into results has.
