– For the first time since the 2021 Formula 1 season, Mercedes is leading both World Championships in the premier class again this year. After the Silver Arrows remained titleless throughout the entire Ground-Effect era between 2022 and 2025, the World Championship trophy could finally return to Brackley in 2026.
Read more Ocons «most difficult first half of the season»: Will it get better for him again?
“A tremendous amount of work was invested to find out where the performance gaps were, what improvements we needed in the area of simulation, how we could predict performance, and similar,” explains deputy team principal Bradley Lord.
Although Mercedes was occasionally capable of winning in the past four seasons, they never managed to build a car during this period that could regularly compete for victories. Therefore, the Silver Arrows were never a genuine title contender in all those years.
Exactly this consistency has Mercedes regained with the new regulations in 2026 and the W17. Of the eleven races up to the summer break, the team won eight, and at all eleven Grands Prix they always brought at least one driver onto the podium.
“We tried to take many of these insights [from the Ground-Effect era] into account when preparing for these regulations,” emphasizes Lord. One major problem was, among other things, that the car behaved very differently on track at the start of the new regulations compared to the simulations.
In 2026, the correlation is right at Mercedes
Mercedes was determined to avoid this mistake in 2026. “I think therefore one of our strengths was that from the very beginning we had a very, very close collaboration between the chassis and engine teams,” says the deputy team principal.
Read more Cadillac with new F1 team principal: Marcin Budkowski replaces Graeme Lowdon
They managed to “develop tools within the capabilities of the chassis team with which we could simulate the behavior of the cars very well and recognize the fundamental challenges of these regulations, and then respond accordingly.”
Photo series: Tears instead of titles: Eight fallen Formula 1 giants
“It was a lot of work and great credit goes to James [Allison] and the technical team working with him, as well as the operational team that then performs the miracle of turning ideas into parts as quickly as possible,” emphasizes Lord.
In addition, Mercedes is constantly working under the budget cap to “improve our ability to get the best out of the available financial resources so that this is reflected in the best possible lap time,” says Lord.
- Formula 1Cadillac with new F1 team principal: Marcin Budkowski replaces Graeme Lowdon
- Formula 1Formula 1 revenues plummet sharply: How this can be logically explained
- DTMPreining retirement threat not just out of frustration? “Thought a lot about the future”
- MotoGPZarco back on two wheels: This is the status of his MotoGP comeback
At the 2026 summer break, Mercedes leads the Constructors’ Championship by 72 points over closest rival Ferrari. In the Drivers’ Championship, Kimi Antonelli already has a 50-point lead over second-placed Lewis Hamilton.
Read more Formula 1 revenues plummet sharply: How this can be logically explained
