NOBODY HAS LEARNED THE LESSON YET

What should Ferrari do now? At least in the short term, the answer is fairly simple: wait. Wait for circuits that better suit the SF-26's characteristics and stop treating every race weekend as a definitive verdict on Ferrari's true potential.

Especially after the victory in Barcelona, I repeatedly stressed how important it was to keep both feet on the ground. Not because I had predicted what would happen in Austria, but because certain patterns in Formula 1 repeat themselves with remarkable consistency. The protagonists change, but the script always stays the same.

In Italy, it seems impossible to learn from past mistakes. Or perhaps, more simply, nobody wants to. It's far more convenient to sell the narrative of a Ferrari suddenly back in the championship fight, just as it is to promote the story of Lewis Hamilton's supposed redemption—a narrative built far more on storytelling than on actual facts.

After just one victory, people were already talking about team orders. Team orders. After only seven races, with six wins claimed by the very same car.

That alone tells you everything about the expectations Ferrari carried into the Red Bull Ring. At that point, almost no result would have been considered good enough. Only a one-two finish could have lived up to the level of excitement that had been created around the team.

That's why today, keeping your feet on the ground is no longer just good advice—it's a necessity.

Ferrari's objective in Austria should have been straightforward: minimize the damage at one of the least favorable tracks on the calendar while maximizing the result before arriving at circuits better suited to the SF-26.

Instead, the impression was exactly the opposite. Ferrari approached the weekend as if it had something to prove, rather than simply trying to extract the maximum from the package it had available.

It felt as though the team was chasing an unlikely breakthrough when the technical picture suggested exactly the opposite. With that level of top speed—and, above all, with such a significant energy management deficit—it was virtually impossible to challenge Mercedes and Red Bull at a circuit like the Red Bull Ring.

That's why I struggle to understand the amount of discussion surrounding tire strategy. If you're losing three or four tenths on the straights alone, no tire compound is going to erase that deficit.

As a result, strategy offered very little room for maneuver. Ferrari should take risks when the car's potential makes a meaningful reward realistic—not when the maximum achievable result is already obvious before the race even begins.

With a more conventional strategy, Hamilton would most likely have finished fourth without much trouble. Just look at the final gaps: Piastri still crossed the line roughly twenty seconds behind Kimi, and given how the race unfolded, it's difficult to imagine Oscar ever catching Lewis.

But ultimately, the real issue wasn't the tires, nor the strategy. The biggest mistake was the approach to the weekend itself.

In Barcelona, Ferrari recognized it had a genuine opportunity to win, and taking risks made perfect sense. In Austria, that opportunity simply didn't exist. Yet the mindset remained almost identical.

It's obvious that the world championship remains an extremely difficult target for Ferrari, especially considering Mercedes' overall competitiveness and the level Kimi has shown so far. I believed that after Barcelona, and I believe it even more today.

That doesn't mean Ferrari is out of the fight. The technical foundation is there, and with a more objective and disciplined approach to maximizing its potential, the team can put itself in a much stronger position once the new power unit arrives.

Ironically, this setback could even prove beneficial if it helps everyone return to a more realistic perspective.

I'd like to believe that lesson will be learned by both the fans and the media.

But I've been around this sport long enough to already know what's likely to happen.

The next pole position—or the next victory—and the wave of euphoria will pick up exactly where it left off.

© Simone Marchetti Cavalieri