- Lewis Hamilton calls for a Ferrari engine upgrade to close the gap to rivals.
- A lap one collision in Miami left him half a second of downforce short.
- ADUO, Formula 1’s catch-up framework, may offer Ferrari a lifeline at Monaco.
Lewis Hamilton wants Ferrari to upgrade their engine. The seven-time world champion made the call after a difficult Miami Grand Prix weekend, saying the SF-26’s power unit is holding the team back from competing with Mercedes and Red Bull.
Hamilton was direct about what Ferrari needs. Speaking to Mara Sangiorgio for Sky Italia after the race, he said:
“Upgrade of the engine? Yes, that is really it. That is what we need a lot right now. At the moment, it is very hard for us to fight against the power of the Red Bull and Mercedes power units, which both have a big advantage over us.”
Hamilton’s Miami nightmare
Hamilton’s weekend in Miami went wrong early. On lap one, he made contact with Franco Colapinto at Turn 11. The resulting damage to his floor and sidepod cost him heavily for the rest of the race.
He described the scale of the setback to Crash.net.
“I lost about half a second of downforce on the car, and I was just driving around for nothing really, well, trying to get as many points as I could with the damage,” he said.
What made it harder to accept was the progress he had made before the race.
“I think we progressed going into qualifying, and the laps to the grid felt really strong,” he said. “And then obviously, with the damage, and it’s the worst when it happens on lap one as well, because then there’s just nothing you can do. Just a passenger.”
Hamilton finished seventh, later promoted to sixth after teammate Charles Leclerc received a 20-second penalty for repeated track limit violations on his final lap.
‘The best car’ but not the best engine
The damage was not the core of Hamilton’s frustration in Miami. The engine gap was.
Unconfirmed reports from within the paddock suggest Ferrari may be running as many as 30 horsepower short of Mercedes on internal combustion engine output.
While those figures remain speculative, they reflect what has been visible on track since the season began.
After the Miami race, Hamilton offered his view on where the car stands overall.
“For the rest, we have a very good car, maybe even the best one, so we need to solve this problem because, if we manage to do that, we could really be more in the fight for victories,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton acknowledged the gap will not close quickly. “It will take some time to close this gap to try to catch up,” he said.
What is ADUO and why does it matter?
The route to an engine upgrade runs through a framework called ADUO, or Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities.
It is a system built into the 2026 power unit regulations to allow manufacturers who have fallen behind to catch up.
The FIA measures power unit performance at every race using a private performance index. Manufacturers who trail the leading engine by 2% or more become eligible for extra upgrades.
Those between 2% and 4% behind earn one additional upgrade in 2026 and one in 2027. Those more than 4% adrift earn two upgrades in each year.
Power units were locked under homologation rules on 1 March. ADUO is the only available path to meaningful engine development during the season.
Ferrari team principal Frédéric Vasseur has signalled his confidence in the process. Speaking at the Chinese Grand Prix, he said:
“The addition of the ADUO will be an opportunity for us to close the gap.”
Ferrari, Honda and Audi are all expected to qualify for assistance. Red Bull Powertrains may fall within the 2% threshold and miss out entirely.
What comes next
The first ADUO assessment was originally due after the sixth race, which would have been Miami. But the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix has shifted the timeline.
The sixth race of the season will now not take place until Monaco in June, and the FIA is expected to make its formal decision around that point.
For Hamilton, the wait carries personal weight. He is 41 and possibly out of contract at Ferrari at the end of the year. His future at the team may rest, at least in part, on what he can show when competitive machinery is underneath him.
An engine upgrade would not just improve the SF-26. It would give Hamilton a genuine chance at an eighth world championship, the record-breaking title he joined Ferrari to pursue.
“We have to solve this problem,” he said in Miami, “because if we succeed, we could really be even more in the fight for victories.”
By his own assessment, the car is ready. The engine has to catch up.
