The loudest voice in the room during the mid-season lull belongs to Jock Clear, and he's not hedging. In a wide-ranging conversation with Peter Windsor, Clear declared this will not be a normal season — and that Mercedes already knows it. The Briton, who spent years embedded deep in Maranello's technical and driver culture, made the case that Ferrari can still win and, crucially, still has significant development headroom to unlock. That second part is the more interesting claim. A car that's already quick *and* hasn't hit its ceiling yet is a genuinely uncomfortable combination for the rest of the grid.

On the power unit front, there's a new face at Maranello worth knowing about. Maxime Martinez has joined as Power Unit Performance Engineer, a couple of months in now after his gardening leave following the collapse of Nissan's Formula E programme. Young engineer, but he carries real single-seater PU experience. The bigger headline, though, is what he's walked into: Ferrari's engine department is in full-throttle development mode, and the team is placing a significant bet on what the Italian press is calling ADUO — an energy deployment architecture that Ferrari believes gives them a structural edge in how power is harvested and released through a lap. Details are sparse, but the fact that they're talking about it at all suggests confidence.

Meanwhile, over in endurance racing, the WEC season opens at Imola this weekend, and the question being asked is whether Ferrari remains the hypercar class benchmark after their strong 2024. The Imola round will be the first real competitive data point — and for the tifosi, a home circuit makes it all the sweeter.