The decision comes as Ferrari’s championship challenge has weakened significantly, with Lewis Hamilton now effectively conceding the drivers’ battle after retiring from the Spanish Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion sits 101 points behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who secured his eighth victory in 14 races in Madrid.
Antonelli’s latest triumph further increased his advantage at the top of the standings and has put the Mercedes driver on course to become the youngest world champion in F1 history at the age of 20.
Ferrari also faces a 145-point gap to Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, although nine races remain on the 2026 calendar. Vasseur has consistently refused to abandon the title fight despite the deficit.
“We are not in the situation of 12 months ago,” Vasseur explained. “Today, what we will develop, we will be able to carry it over on next year’s project.
“We will continue to work, but perhaps on different things, different aspects. The development that we do now, 80% will be carried over.”
The Frenchman has, however, acknowledged that Ferrari must find greater speed in qualifying if it is to mount a stronger challenge to Mercedes.
He added: “This we need to improve, because I think when you have a look on the pace, during the race the pace is there. For sure we need to do a better job in quali.
“If you take Zandvoort and this one, the profile of the event is a little bit the same for us. We had a decent pace in quali, but we didn’t put everything together on the last attempt, and race pace is OK.
“If I have to put the focus of the team on something today, it would be the evolution of the pace during the quali – more than the pace in quali, the evolution, the steps that you can do. We were there on run one Q3, the potential is there, we just have to adapt everything further on.”
