2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

[zibby43]

Toto Wolff: "Our Achilles heel so far has been reliability. We have lost a large amount of points across both cars in recent races; if we don’t put together clean weekends, our competitors will happily take advantage.

"We are not standing still in our efforts; we will bring a few updates to Austria this weekend with a focus on improving both performance and reliability."

Great news.

[zibby43]

Interesting piece from Mark Hughes to put a bow on Barcelona:

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arti ... -the-rims/

[erudite450]

Interesting piece from Mark Hughes to put a bow on Barcelona:

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arti ... -the-rims/

I'm not sure where the talk about Ferrari having better degradation in Barcelona came from but that was not borne out of the data. Obviously, Hamilton was running in Russell's wake for much of the race which wouldn't have helped his sliding but Antonelli was able to follow Russell closely and still had field leading pace.

[zibby43]

Interesting piece from Mark Hughes to put a bow on Barcelona:

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arti ... -the-rims/

I'm not sure where the talk about Ferrari having better degradation in Barcelona came from but that was not borne out of the data. Obviously, Hamilton was running in Russell's wake for much of the race which wouldn't have helped his sliding but Antonelli was able to follow Russell closely and still had field leading pace.

Yep. There were some pieces out there trying to claim their clever new wheel design was the decisive factor in their upturn in form and victory. The crux being they helped Ferrari have better tire degradation on race day.

[Lasssept]

[Lasssept]

Motorsport Italy

Mercedes has introduced several software updates and minor hardware changes to the battery pack. However, as Antonelli himself clarified, these measures fall under routine reliability management and have no connection to the ADUO.
...
A separate issue was raised by Toto Wolff immediately after the chequered flag in Barcelona. The Mercedes team principal stressed that the time lost in the direct duel between Russell and Antonelli had not been ideal for the team.

“There was a meeting on the matter and Toto was very clear. If we find ourselves in a situation similar to Barcelona, under pressure from our rivals, there will be a team order — particularly if one of the two cars has the superior pace. If, however, we are simply fighting each other without external pressure from another team, we will be free to race, just as we did in Montreal.”

[Tonino]

Motorsport Italy

Mercedes has introduced several software updates and minor hardware changes to the battery pack. However, as Antonelli himself clarified, these measures fall under routine reliability management and have no connection to the ADUO.
...
A separate issue was raised by Toto Wolff immediately after the chequered flag in Barcelona. The Mercedes team principal stressed that the time lost in the direct duel between Russell and Antonelli had not been ideal for the team.

“There was a meeting on the matter and Toto was very clear. If we find ourselves in a situation similar to Barcelona, under pressure from our rivals, there will be a team order — particularly if one of the two cars has the superior pace. If, however, we are simply fighting each other without external pressure from another team, we will be free to race, just as we did in Montreal.”

Understandable and logical call from Toto. If one of the cars is slower than the one behind, and you're fighting a direct rival, there's absolutely no reason to let your drivers fight each other on track. Zero reason from a team perspective.

[Lasssept]