Mercedes clarifies: Did not “dominate” in the first half of the season

– Mercedes leads both World Championships going into the 2026 Formula 1 summer break. Kimi Antonelli is 50 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ standings, and the team has a 72-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors’ championship. But do the Silver Arrows just have to cruise both titles home in the second half of the season?

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According to deputy team principal Bradley Lord, this is by no means the case. In fact, the first half of the season was much tougher than it appeared from the outside. “If you look at the statistics […], it’s easy to use terms like ‘dominant’,” Lord knows.

Because until the last race before the summer break in Hungary, Mercedes was on pole at all ten Grands Prix and also won eight of those ten races. Only in Barcelona and Silverstone did Ferrari come out ahead twice, and in Budapest, Lando Norris took McLaren’s first win of the season.

“I think in most races in the first half of the season, we had at most a narrow lead,” emphasizes Lord and explains: “I believe the real satisfaction lies in the fact that we were competitive and at the front on every type of circuit and under all conditions.”

Lord adds: “We could have won any of the ten races, but due to reliability issues and sometimes also because of how we as a team manage the battle between the drivers, it didn’t happen.”

Mercedes wants to reduce mistakes in the second half of the season

What is important to him, however, is: “We were always able to keep up and fight for the win.” Because while the performance of the competitors fluctuated from track to track, Mercedes was always capable of winning. That’s why they are now leading the championship.

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“We certainly didn’t go to Melbourne thinking we would have such a winning rate by the summer break,” Lord emphasizes. And even now, internally, they don’t really look at how well the first half of the season went.

Photo gallery: Budapest: Driver ratings by Marc Surer and the editorial team

“To be honest, the internal focus is probably more on the roughly one hundred points we add up and say we left on the table,” explains the deputy team principal, among other things with regard to the reliability problems.

For example, George Russell retired while leading in Canada, and teammate Antonelli missed the chance for a top result due to defects in Barcelona and Silverstone. The goal for the second half of the season must be to fix these issues, says Lord.

“If we succeed in that, we should be better positioned in the championship in this regard,” he emphasizes. Mercedes last won the constructors’ title in 2021, and the last drivers’ title by Lewis Hamilton was already six years ago.

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