Ferrari is the only car strong on the straights and in the corners, and the Monza Alpine is the fastest in a straight line: the 2026 setup map

Two measurements per team and a single plane: how fast on the straights, how fast through the slowest point of the corners. That is enough to see who picked a side and who did not have to — and to notice that only one car sits above average on both, whichever race you take out of the count.

Muretto · Redazione tecnica25 August 2026·12 gare · Gara

The number First in twelve races out of twelve

Twelve races, twelve times first. Across every 2026 race with telemetry in the archive, Ferrari tops the combination of top speed and cornering speed, and stays there with any single race removed: 12 out of 12. No other car passes the test. The record is theirs.

The method fits in one sentence. For each race we take the median top speed across the laps, not the single peak, so a tow cannot fool us, and the median speed at the slowest point of the corners; then we turn both measurements into percentiles against the rivals at that circuit and average them over the season.

Ferrari sits at the 65th percentile on the straights and the 71st in the corners. It does not have the highest peak and it is not the quickest under load: it is the only one above the grid average on both axes.

Each team on the straight-line–corner plane (12 races, percentiles). Top right, those strong everywhere; bottom right, the low-downforce choices; on the left, those who stay behind. Highlighted, the two leading the combination (Ferrari).

Where it comes from Who loads the wing and who takes it off

The straight-corner plane is a map of choices before it is a map of value. McLaren is the most loaded car on the grid, 40th percentile on the straights and 66th in the corners. Haas is the exact opposite: 65th on the straights, 34th in the corners. They sit at the two extremes of the same trade-off, and everything else sits in between.

Second in the combination is Alpine, and it gets there from one side of the plane only: 75th percentile on the straights, the highest figure of all, against a 49th in the corners that sits below average. That car took pole at Monza with Gasly, on a lap made almost entirely of straights.

Bottom left, behind everywhere, Aston Martin: 17th on the straights and 43rd in the corners. Mercedes and Red Bull sit level just above average, with a small edge in the corners; Audi and Williams are the average itself.

Combined = average of the straight-line and corner percentiles. 50 is the grid average; it is a ranking of strong-in-both, not a measure of aerodynamic efficiency.

What it is worth A setup signature, not an efficiency figure

Before reading the map as aerodynamics, two confounders have to be cleared out of the way. Top speed is not only drag: it carries the power of the power unit inside it. Cornering speed is not only downforce: it carries mechanical grip and the tyre inside it.

The plane is therefore a setup signature, how each team balances straights against corners, and not a measure of pure aerodynamic efficiency, which our channels cannot isolate. One piece of control does exist: among the teams running the Mercedes power unit, that is Alpine, McLaren, Mercedes and Williams, the straights cannot be a question of horsepower, and that is where the setup choice reads most cleanly. Alpine and McLaren sit at opposite extremes with the same engine.

The check was in the reading of Monza: if the map tells the truth, the fastest car in a straight line of the season had to feel at home on a lap spent almost entirely at full throttle. Gasly's pole points that way. What happened afterwards in the race, with the stops and the traffic, we measured separately: that is another question, and it has its own piece.