Mercedes is confident it can win again in the 2026 Formula 1 season, but is aware it has been facing a bigger challenge than ever from the other top teams.
The Silver Arrows triumphed in the opening six grands prix of the campaign, as F1 switched to new technical regulations. Later on, rival upgrades meant Ferrari claimed two victories in Austria and Great Britain, then McLaren’s Lando Norris took back-to-back wins in Hungary and the Netherlands, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen prevailed most recently in Malaysia and Singapore.
Mercedes didn’t hold off from updating its car either, but the team is well aware its performance advantage has been slashed. That’s despite a healthy lead in both championships, with a maiden world title within reach of Kimi Antonelli in Austin.
“I think we've sounded like a bit of a broken record all year, to be honest, because we've been saying how close and competitive this season is, even if we were able to put a good run of wins together earlier in the season,” deputy team principal Bradley Lord commented on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show. “That is being borne out.
“We saw Ferrari upgrading their car either prior to or up to Baku, Red Bull doing the same. We obviously brought our update to Malaysia and we've seen different levels of hitting the ground running, I guess, with those updates. Last two races, both Red Bull and Ferrari have been more competitive than they had been in the events up to then.”
Average gap to pole position
Australia to JapanMiami to BelgiumHungary to SingaporeHung. to Sing. (excl. Baku outlier)| Mercedes: +0.000s | Mercedes: +0.000s | Mercedes: +0.162s | Ferrari: +0.184s |
| McLaren: +0.567s | Ferrari: +0.267s | Ferrari: +0.277s | Mercedes: +0.189s |
| Ferrari: +0.596s | Red Bull: +0.313s | McLaren: +0.283s | McLaren: +0.191s |
| Red Bull: +0.974s | McLaren: +0.432s | Red Bull: +0.339s | Red Bull: +0.233s |
“We know we've got a real fight on our hands,” Lord continued, “and it's important that we carry on doing that learning to pull the performance out of the car, so that also we can go into the next races sort of confident that we can fight for wins and continue the sort of two-car points-scoring that we need in order to turn all the hard work so far this year into the result that we're all aiming for, because that was one of the things of the last triple-header – it was quite a messy triple-header in terms of results.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images
It was a ‘messy triple-header’ indeed, with Antonelli hitting the wall in qualifying in Baku and George Russell suffering a power unit failure in Malaysia, which meant he exceeded his quota in Singapore and started that race from the back of the grid; the Briton went on to crash out of the sprint as he was leading.
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So when asked who will be the team to beat in Austin, deputy technical director Simone Resta pondered: “It's quite interesting to see that in every weekend you go in, you are never sure about who's going to be the strongest one out there.
“With what we've seen so far with Red Bull, they'll be there fighting for the top position for sure. They've been quite strong now in a few races and they will be strong.
“We've seen a strong Ferrari more or less in all the conditions. Maybe they miss a little bit, let's say, to be in the top position, but they're very competitive.
“And we need to respect McLaren. McLaren, they are the world champion team and they've shown in some races this year that they can be the strongest out there, even with some margin.
“There's good possibility that all of these teams will be strong there, and it makes it even more exciting for ourselves. You will try to really squeeze out a bit more from the package, try to optimise our configuration and come back to the top again, like we were in Baku, like we were in Monza, like we've been able to win in Madrid. We can do it again.”
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