Andrea Stella says Ferrari's SF-26 is the Formula 1 car with the best chassis

While Mercedes retains the overall performance advantage due to its better power unit, Ferrari has had a decent car despite lacking in terms of power.

That has been the consensus since the start of the season, as the SF-26 seemed to be a handy piece of kit in the corner while struggling to match Mercedes' W17 on the straights.

Historically, it has been established that the Formula 1 car that goes well around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will perform well everywhere else.

And while Mercedes were on pole in Qualifying, Ferrari had the better race pace, which meant Lewis Hamilton snatched the win in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

McLaren, on the other hand, were playing catchup and were lucky that Kimi Antonelli suffered a DNF, which meant Lando Norris inherited third while Oscar Piastri was down in fifth.

Stella commented on Ferrari's updated SF-26 after the race; he said: "I think this race gives us very clear indications.

"I think these indications, in a way, are consistent with what we knew already. I think these indications are that Ferrari, at the moment, is the car with the best chassis.

"We see in the middle sector, especially in the medium-speed corner, that Ferrari is the fastest in the corners, not necessarily the fastest in the straights," he pointed out.

The Italian then compared Ferrari's performance to McLaren's; he explained: "We see that, from a McLaren point of view, we are competitive in the high-speed corners. Like you are in corner 3, 9, corner 14, but overall we struggle with grip in medium-speed and low-speed.

"Very clear indications, as we knew already, that we have to add grip to the car of an aerodynamic nature, so add load onto the tires—and then we also have to improve the way we interact with the tyres in terms of qualifying preparation for what comes to the first corner, for instance.

"We see that often in qualifying we lose time at the start, but then in conditions like this, in the race, we would like to reduce tyre degradation.

"So, quite a clear agenda from a performance point of view. We need to add aerodynamic performance; we need to add solutions for better tyre exploitation," Stella maintained.

After a break from racing this weekend, F1 will return in Austria, and Stella believes Ferrari will still be good there.

"Austria is a slightly different circuit," he added. "Here, the stability and the braking and turning are so essential here in Barcelona. There it's more like straight-line braking, and then you go in some corners into low speed.

"So it's a slightly different circuit compared to here, but I would expect that Ferrari remains the fastest car in the corners.

"Probably Mercedes over a single lap is the best car overall when the chassis and the power unit are both considered," he noted. "We aim for the coming races to develop our car further by bringing some upgrades, but at the same time we are certain that our competitors will also have some upgrades.

"For us, honestly, we want to look at our own trajectory; we want to make sure that race by race we improve our car. And then we kind of let the results take care of themselves.

"So the maximum focus at the moment is internal, what we need to do to improve the car," Stella concluded. (Reporting by Agnes Carlier)