Button to Ferrari: stop looking over your shoulder and lean into 2026
Jenson Button has seen enough of Maranello’s reflex to flinch. The 2009 world champion, dropping in as a pundit at Singapore, reckons Ferrari’s workforce still operates under a quiet dread — make a mistake and you’re out — and that’s no way to attack the biggest reset F1 has thrown at the grid in years.
“You can’t be afraid to fail,” Button said. “It feels like it’s easy to be pushed out the door, and it’s not a nice feeling to have. You need consistency throughout the team. It gives everyone confidence, and the drivers confidence.”
Ferrari’s 2025 promised fireworks. Lewis Hamilton alongside Charles Leclerc was supposed to unlock a proper title push after the Scuderia pushed McLaren all the way to last year’s finale. Instead, the red cars are still hunting a first win of the season, and McLaren has walked off with the Constructors’ crown with six rounds in hand. George Russell’s Singapore victory for Mercedes underlined the point: Stuttgart can still land a punch, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen still pops up to spoil afternoons, but nobody has laid a glove on Woking often enough.
Button isn’t writing Ferrari off. Far from it. He called their year “not horrific,” and he’s right: they’re still lodged in the top three in the Constructors’ standings and in the mix to hang on to runner-up status. But it’s the mood music that worries him. With 2026 coming fast — lighter cars by roughly 30 kg, active aero replacing DRS, narrower Pirellis, and a power unit split that doubles the electrical punch while the ICE runs on fully sustainable fuel — the stakes are obvious. If a team’s ever needed calm hands and collective nerve, it’s now.
To their credit, Ferrari has tried to bottle some stability. Frederic Vasseur’s new multi-year deal was both a statement and a shield after the usual Italian rumor mill cranked up mid-season. Internally, that extension only works if the message trickles all the way down the corridors: we’re sticking with the plan, we’re sticking with each other, and we’ll learn in public if we have to.
“So I hope that’s not the case next year,” Button added of the fear factor. “I hope that they see out the whole year together, because there’s going to be so much change for the first race, but also the 24th race. So much is going to change throughout the year. It’s a great team, and I think it has really good leadership, and you don’t get a better driver line-up than that, no?”
That last point isn’t just flattery. A Hamilton–Leclerc pairing is a competitive constant in a moving landscape. What Ferrari can’t afford is the old loop: poor Sunday, Monday post-mortem, Tuesday whispers about heads rolling. Development in 2026 will be iterative and volatile; aero maps and energy deployment strategies will evolve race to race. If you spin the carousel every time the wind changes, you’ll never catch the gust.
The paradox with Ferrari is that it’s both uniquely exposed and uniquely equipped. Pressure doesn’t just live there; it’s laminated into the walls. Yet the resource, the driver talent, and the leadership are in place. Button’s read is less a lecture than a nudge: harness the pressure, stop treating risk like a trap, and let clever people be brave long enough to turn a corner.
McLaren’s romp this year is a reminder of what happens when a team aligns, believes its own wind tunnel, and gives its drivers a car they understand. Mercedes’ Singapore win is a reminder that a focused package and the right execution still count. Ferrari has flirted with both in flashes. Now they need a season, not a Sunday.
Button was spotted trackside recently at the Qatar WEC round — a racing lifer still orbiting the paddocks — and his verdict on Ferrari lands with the ring of experience. The 2026 cars will reward those who experiment without flinching and iterate without panic. Fail fast, learn faster, keep the room together. That’s the job.
Ferrari doesn’t need a miracle. It needs a mirror — and then a year where nobody’s afraid of what they see.
