Mercedes

Something of a fallen giant across recent years. After an all-conquering start to the hybrid era from 2014-2021 where the team and its drivers – notably one Lewis Hamilton – swept all that lay before them, Mercedes–AMG has largely been left to piecemeal wins since. A winless season in 2023 was the team’s worst campaign silverware-wise since 2011, but even then Mercedes still managed to finish second in the Constructors’ standings, a feat it replicated last year with just two wins. The consistency is undoubtedly there, and operationally this is still one of the best teams out there.

“There are echoes of the rules shift that catapulted Mercedes to the top of the world in 2014”

The rules reset for this season could well play nicely into Mercedes’ hands, with echoes of the shift that catapulted the three-pointed star to the top of the world in 2014. With the benefit of its own factory engine supply, the team is arguably best-placed to start this year on a high note.

63 George Russell Born February 1998, Great Britain Starts 152 Wins 5 / Podiums 24 / Poles 7 Notable achievements 2018 FIA F2 champion, 2017 GP3 Series champion

12 Kimi Antonelli Born August 2006, Italy Starts 24 Wins 0 / Podiums 3 / Poles 0 Notable achievements 2023 Formula Regional European and Middle East champion, 2022 Italian and German F4 champion

Can Mercedes repeat 2014 F1 domination all over again in 2026?

As Mercedes enters F1’s new era, the question is whether a fresh rules reset can once again place it a step ahead, as it did in the hybrid age

Mercedes’ 2026 Formula 1 car has a familiar question hanging over it: As Formula 1 resets its technical regulations once again, can the team do what it did in 2014 and emerge one decisive step ahead of the field? More than a decade has passed since Mercedes defined the hybrid era with ruthless dominance, marrying power-unit excellence to a chassis capable of exploiting it better than anyone else to be a cut above its rivals in the championship for several years.

Since then, the team has experienced every phase of competitive life, going from dominance to decline, followed by a recovery that brought it closer to the top. The 2026 season will inevitably pose the question of whether Mercedes still knows how to seize a moment of opportunity when the rules change completely to become a championship-winning force once again.

Paddock speculation has suggested for months that Mercedes’ new power unit is among the strongest — perhaps the strongest — heading into the new era.

That alone would be significant, but Mercedes has learnt the hard way during the ground-effect era that engine advantage means little without a chassis concept capable of unlocking it. The forthcoming season is about that missing alignment.

Under the new regulations, power-unit integration is not a background concern; it is a fundamental element. Energy deployment, cooling solutions and aerodynamic compromises will define how competitive a car can be across an entire season.

Mercedes’ recent struggles have often stemmed from a disconnect between its ambitions and resources, and its execution. The 2026 car will offer the first clues as to whether those lessons have truly been absorbed and learned.

That is not a question that can be answered right away, but Mercedes’ reputation and muscle ensure it will be need to be asked anyway.

There is also a broader sense that Mercedes enters 2026 with fewer excuses than at any point in the previous rules cycle.

The team has rebuilt, recalibrated and refocused. It has experienced the pain of falling behind, but the resources and the infrastructure were always in place to rebound and they continue to be.

“Mercedes has rebuilt, recalibrated and refocused”

So what remains is the execution. If Mercedes has indeed produced a leading power unit, there will be no place to hide: it would be hugely embarrassing if it squandered a head-start due to an underwhelming chassis — particularly if it’s out-raced by customer teams McLaren, Williams, or even Alpine.

The team clearly understands this pressure, releasing a statement of intent from Toto Wolff to accompany the first images of its new challenger, the F1 W17.

“Formula 1 will undergo significant change in 2026, and we are prepared for that transition,” Wolff said. “The new regulations demand innovation and absolute focus across every area of performance. Our work on the new car, and the long-term development of the power unit and advanced sustainable fuels reflects that approach.”

The human element, meanwhile, matters just as much.

George Russell enters 2026 at a pivotal point in his career: he’s no longer the prodigy, and not yet a champion, but he has already demonstrated that he belongs at the sharp end and feels ready to fight for his first title.

What he has lacked, until now, is a car capable of sustaining a title fight across a full season. If Mercedes delivers such a package, there will be no question marks about Russell’s readiness. His pace, racecraft and composure have been evident even in difficult seasons.

The start of the season, therefore, doubles as a referendum on Mercedes’ confidence in its lead driver, and on whether it believes the pieces are finally in place to give him the platform he deserves.

The speculation about Max Verstappen during 2025 will also be in Russell’s mind should Mercedes give him a car capable of a title fight.

“Russell needs to perform and live up to the promise”

The Briton will need to perform and live up to the promise that he is prepared to sustain a championship challenge alongside the likes of Verstappen or Lando Norris.

Whether he is given that opportunity, however, will depend less on individual brilliance than on the collective strength and clarity of the project around him.

Unlike some rivals, Mercedes does not need to rebuild its identity as it enters the new era. The team knows exactly what it is and what its goals are. But identity alone does not win championships, particularly in a grid as competitive and technically sophisticated as this one.

That is why comparisons to 2014, while inevitable, are also misleading.

Mercedes doesn’t need to repeat history in scale or dominance. It needs to repeat the process: recognising the opportunity of a rules reset, committing early to the right philosophy, and executing with the precision that was missing during the ground-effect period.

The early stages of 2026 haven’t yet revealed whether Mercedes has succeeded in that task, but they do hint that the team believes it has.

Advantage Mercedes? Behind the F1 rumours for 2026

Will Mercedes-powered F1 teams really have an advantage this season? The hearsay is almost certainly true, says Mark Hughes

It’s unusual that a technical controversy should arise in Formula 1 before the concept has even been raced, but that’s what happened during the off-season with the revelation that Mercedes had found a way to circumnavigate the 2026 regulation regarding the compression ratio of the new power units.

“Mercedes may have given itself, and its customers, a 0.3s head start”

This has been likened to the 2019 Ferrari fuel flow controversy, whereby the fuel flow limit was believed to be breached (as revealed by a former member of the team who had been recruited elsewhere) but there was no way of measuring if it had and no direct evidence. But in order to exploit the greater power of the illegally high fuel flow, Ferrari needed – at some tracks – to exceed the 100kg fuel capacity limit.

At the final 2019 race in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari was found to have miscalibrated its fuel measuring system so that an indicated 100kg – when tested by the correctly calibrated FIA equipment – was found to be significantly in excess of that. So although it was impossible to prove that the fuel flow limit was being exceeded in operation, there was the smoking gun of the miscalibrated measurement equipment for the capacity.

There would only be disadvantage to running beyond 100kg (more car weight) unless of course it was allowing you to use more power through an illegally high fuel flow. The measured fuel in Charles Leclerc’s car before the start of the race was 4.88kg greater than declared or permitted. So there was evidence of both the technique used to misdeclare and the actual misdeclaration – which heavily supported the fuel flow breach theory. Because the fuel flow cheat required the blatant misdeclaration of the fuel capacity, it was quite a crude cheat.

In the case of the Mercedes compression ratio, there is no smoking gun. Only the (almost certainly accurate) hearsay. So it is not quite the same. It’s much more like the flexi-wings which pass the regulations at the static test but which exceed that flex at the higher loads seen on the track – something which every single team takes advantage of. In fact, it’s even better concealed than that – because the wing-flex is visually revealed (but not in a way which allows accurate measurement) by on-board cameras whereas the compression ratio cannot be.

The difference, of course, is that with flexi-wings, all the teams do it and therefore there is no competitive advantage for something which the FIA cannot definitively measure. With the compression ratio ruse, it’s become an issue because one (possibly two) engine manufacturers has it while the others have not worked out how to do it.

Lengthening the conrod through heat expansion is one thing. Using that to increase the compression ratio is quite another because typically, although the conrod will expand with heat, so does everything around it. The difference between the conrod heat expansion and that of the block invariably means you actually lose compression as the engine heats up. With the 2022-25 power units, the 18:1 compression reduced to around 17.2:1 at operating temperature. Manufacturers running their ’26 engines on the dyno report that the new regulation 16:1 compression ratio reduces to around 15.4:1 in operation. Yet Mercedes has apparently found a way to actually increase it.

A meeting between the FIA and the engine manufacturers was held to discuss the issue, and the FIA reportedly tested Mercedes’ engine at both ambient and operating temperatures, finding it fully compliant to the 16:1 limit. However, as a bow to manufacturer disquiet, the FIA also confirmed upcoming changes to the testing. From June 1 the compression ratio will be measured at 130C as well as ambient temperature, and from next year only at 130C. An FIA statement read: “All parties acknowledge that with the introduction of such significant regulatory changes, there are collective learnings to be taken from pre-season testing and the initial rounds of the 2026 championship. Further evaluation and technical checks on energy management matters are ongoing.”

But that’s only from June. Thus, Mercedes has potentially given itself, and its customer teams (McLaren, Williams and Alpine) a 0.3s boost. Expansion and contraction. Of the metal and in the principle; the boffins expand the possibilities, the regulators contract their space in which to do it. So the game of Formula 1 continues.