According to Motorsport.com, Mercedes is fully aware that its supreme grip on Formula 1 has slipped as the 2026 campaign nears its climax. While the Silver Arrows managed to dominate the opening six grands prix of the season under the new technical regulations, the rest of the grid has officially caught up.
The stats tell the whole story. Ferrari grabbed two victories in Austria and Great Britain, Lando Norris took back-to-back wins for McLaren in Hungary and the Netherlands, and Max Verstappen has most recently prevailed in Malaysia and Singapore for Red Bull Racing. Mercedes has not stopped developing its own car, but the performance advantage is gone, even if a healthy lead in both championships remains intact and a maiden world title is within reach for Kimi Antonelli in Austin.
Deputy team principal Bradley Lord spoke candidly about the shifting landscape on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show. Lord admitted the team has sounded like a broken record regarding how close the season is, pointing out that Ferrari and Red Bull brought crucial upgrades up to Baku and Malaysia respectively. A messy recent triple-header compounded their worries, featuring Antonelli crashing out in qualifying in Baku and George Russell suffering a power unit failure in Malaysia. That failure forced Russell to exceed his power unit quota, sending him to the back of the grid in Singapore before he crashed out of the sprint while leading.
To make matters worse, the latest W17 update simply did not deliver the relative gains Mercedes expected against the competition. In fact, 2026 now marks only the second time since 1990 that four different outfits have claimed multiple wins in a single season, with Mercedes taking 11 alongside two apiece for Ferrari, McLaren, and Red Bull. The only other time this happened in the modern era was back in 2024.
Faced with this unpredictable grid, deputy technical director Simone Resta acknowledged that no weekend comes with guarantees anymore. Resta noted that Red Bull will undoubtedly be fighting at the front, Ferrari remains competitive across all conditions, and reigning champions McLaren must be respected after showing race-winning pace with a margin at times.
Despite the mounting pressure, the mood inside the camp is not one of panic. The team is simply focused on squeezing more from their package, optimizing configurations, and returning to the top step just as they did previously in Baku, Monza, and Madrid.
