La 126 C est la première F1 de l'ère turbo. Dotée d'un moteur à 6 cylindres de 1500 cm³ (assimilé par le règlement aux moteurs atmosphériques 3 litres), elle se révéla, au cours de la saison, relativement peu fiable, même si elle permit au canadien Gilles Villeneuve de remporter les GP d'Espagne et de Monaco.
   Le châssis laissait également à désirer, car son développement avait été négligé: la voiture fut par conséquent incapable de rivaliser avec ses adversaires

   The 312’s flat-12 engine had been Ferrari’s mainstay F1 powerplant for a decade, but in 1980, the handwriting was on the wall. Even as the team raced with little success that season, Ferrari was hard at work developing a state-of-the-art turbo-charged engine. It was unveiled on the second practice day for the Italian Grand Prix at Imola in September, and it was a half-second faster than the naturally aspirated flat-12 312 T5.
   Development continued over the winter for what would be called the 126 C. It reprised Ferrari’s tradition of a tube frame overlaid with aluminum sheeting, but was powered by a 1496cc V-6 with two German KKK turbochargers, a pair of intercoolers, and four valves per cylinder. Horsepower was quoted at 540, 25 more than Ferrari’s most-powerful flat-12.
   Despite its newness, the engine proved remarkably reliable, but the chassis was a handful. Still, on the strength of Gilles Villeneuve’s brilliance and the new engine’s prodigious power, the 125 C won the Monaco Grand Prix, just its sixth race. The Canadian won again in Spain, but wrecks and chassis problems plagued the team the rest of the year, and Ferrari finished fifth among 11 entries in 1981 constructors points.