Ferrari reveals name of 2026 F1 car ahead of launch

The Ferrari Formula 1 team has announced the chassis designation for its 2026 car ahead of its 23 January launch event at Fiorano.

The Italian outfit has, in recent years, named its F1 cars after the season in which they race, with the 2026 challenger following this pattern.

The 2026 Ferrari F1 car will be known as the SF-26, following last year’s SF-25, the SF-24 and the SF-23.

Ferrari has tweaked this pattern, designating the 2022 car as the F1-75 to mark its 75th anniversary of the brand’s first production car.

In 2020, it fielded the SF1000 to mark its 1000th grand prix, which happened to be on home soil at Mugello at the Tuscan Grand Prix.

The SF-26 will be the second Ferrari F1 car to be raced by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, following his move to the Scuderia last season.

Despite all of the anticipation surrounding his move to Ferrari, Hamilton registered his worst season in F1, scoring no grand prix podiums for the first time.

The highlight for the Briton was a sprint victory in China.

He will once again be joined by Charles Leclerc, who enters his seventh season with Ferrari.

Leclerc had a much stronger season compared to team-mate Hamilton, achieving seven grand prix podiums.

The 2026 season will see a radical shake-up of the technical regulations, as F1 moves away from the ground effect cars introduced in 2022.

Ferrari will unveil its new car on 23 January, and will carry out a shakedown run of the SF-26 on the same day at its Fiorano test track.

Because of the major change to the regulations, there will be three pre-season tests staged before the campaign gets underway in early March in Australia.

The first of these will be a five-day private test held from 26-30 January at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

This will be held behind closed doors.

The second pre-season test will take place from 11-13 February in Bahrain, with a final three-day test scheduled for 18-20 February, also in Bahrain.