What McLaren and Mercedes told Chandhok about Ferrari’s Miami GP updates

Ferrari’s huge Miami upgrade package has failed to convince McLaren or Mercedes that the Scuderia is ready to fight for the title, according to Karun Chandhok.

Ferrari arrived at the Miami Grand Prix, round four of the F1 2026 championship, with 11 updates for the SF-26, four more than any other team brought to the track.

Karun Chandhok reveals rival teams’ reaction to Ferrari’s Miami upgrade package

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Instead of spacing out the updates, as McLaren has opted to do between Miami and Montreal, Ferrari went all in.

Amongst the changes, the team introduced a new floor and diffuser, while also revising the ‘Macarena’ rear wing to improve drag reduction and focus on increasing load in cornering mode.

The weekend started strong with Charles Leclerc topping the timesheet in the extended FP1 by almost three-tenths ahead of Max Verstappen. That was the team’s sole P1 of the weekend.

Leclerc finished the Sprint in third place, Ferrari was pushed off the podium in Sunday’s grand prix for the first time this season, with Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton fifth and seventh at the chequered flag. Leclerc was subsequently penalised 20 seconds for repeatedly gaining an advantage by cutting the corners on the final lap after hitting the wall.

While McLaren, with its double podiums, scored a season’s best 48 points, Mercedes brought in 45 and Ferrari only 20.

If that’s the best that Ferrari has to offer with its updates, Chandhok says he’s been told by people at McLaren and Mercedes that they are not worried about Ferrari challenging anytime soon.

“I think it was overall, a bit disappointing for them,” the former F1 driver told Sky’s The F1 Show podcast.

“As someone from McLaren and someone else from Mercedes both pointed out to me, if that is the big Ferrari upgrade for this early part of the season, then we’re not worried, because if that’s the best they’ve got, and they haven’t got something coming for a little while, we’ll be okay.

“This should have been the weekend which propelled them in front, doesn’t it?

“We know Mercedes are out of sync. They’re bringing their upgrade to Canada. Ferrari were ahead of Red Bull and were ahead of McLaren, and I feel like they’ve slipped behind.

“If Max hadn’t spun, I don’t think he would have been quick enough to challenge Kimi or Lando, but he would have been third. I think he would have been ahead of Oscar and Charles.

“So for me, I think there’s a little bit of concern, or there should be a little bit of concern at Maranello and Ferrari.

“Lewis just looked behind didn’t he? He was just behind Charles by a couple of tenths, two, three tenths all weekend. Obviously, in the race, he was compromised with the damage.

“But I think they’ve got to think about whether there’s further performance to be optimised or unlocked from this update, because otherwise they’re going to get dropped behind when McLaren have more go faster bits that we believe are coming to Canada, and Mercedes get their big upgrade.”

More on Ferrari’s Miami Grand Prix updates

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Hamilton, however, believes there is more to be extracted from Ferrari’s updates.

The Briton suffered damage on the opening lap in a collision with Franco Colapinto that cost him downforce

“I think we progressed going into qualifying, and the laps to the grid felt really strong. I was already feeling like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna be strong in this race’.

“And then, obviously, with the damage, and it’s the worst when it happens on lap one as well, because then you just, there’s just nothing you can do.

“Honestly, I think without the damage, I think we would have been right up in the fight. The car was feeling good on the laps to the grid. So it’s a shame, because it doesn’t really truly reflect the hard work that the team has done.

“A weekend to forget, we move forwards and we try to see if we can extract more at the next race.”

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