2026 Austrian Grand Prix - Spielberg, June 26 - 28

[Chuckjr]

I could not find it on you tube, but at the 3 hour and 10 min mark in the Apple coverage of the race, they interview Toto post race, and he had some interesting things to say about Ferrari's current development, budget, and Merc's development to come. I thought it was pretty smug from Toto. Interesting to watch, fwiw. He is clearly very confident in their chances for the rest of the season. Imo, he tossed a grenade into the Ferrari camp. Also of note, watch Antonelli in the post race--he is almost laughing at the speed differential between them and Ferrari.

[PlatinumZealot]

Mercedes basically have zero upgrsdes and are still the fastest. Mercedes advantage gives the luxury of massaging that upgrade to perfection, biding their time to release it the opportune moment.

We know they like Canada, Silverstone, Singapore? as their upgrade cadence.

[MB_Racer]

I could not find it on you tube, but at the 3 hour and 10 min mark in the Apple coverage of the race, they interview Toto post race, and he had some interesting things to say about Ferrari's current development, budget, and Merc's development to come. I thought it was pretty smug from Toto. Interesting to watch, fwiw. He is clearly very confident in their chances for the rest of the season. Imo, he tossed a grenade into the Ferrari camp. Also of note, watch Antonelli in the post race--he is almost laughing at the speed differential between them and Ferrari.

This is for sure extremely interesting and fully agreed… Toto clearly looked very confident !

[DDopey]

Mercedes got upgraded in Canada.

[Sevach]

Mercedes basically have zero upgrsdes and are still the fastest. Mercedes advantage gives the luxury of massaging that upgrade to perfection, biding their time to release it the opportune moment.

We know they like Canada, Silverstone, Singapore? as their upgrade cadence.

They have one engine upgrade to go, same as Ferrari, Mclaren poses no threat to them.
Red Bull and Ferrari have brought extensive aero upgrades in the last 2 GP.
And they still have the better car.

Mercedes probably has a new upgrade batch ready to go and a opportunity to take a major step with the engine.
They can also put some reliability upgrades given the failures.
Plus given what Mr Paddy Lowe said about not running the 2014 engines to their full potential i can't help but wonder if that isn't the case now.

What Ferrari did in Barcelona was impressive, but if they mirrored Lewis strategy they probably still win, Russell had everything in control for the first 2 stints.

[Chuckjr]

Seeing the confidence and very calculated aggression from Toto caught me off guard and communicated, at least to me, that he has a vendetta towards Ferrari in some sense. It really surprised me. My gut says they are going to lay waste the remainder of the season and yes, it feels very much like 2014. This dude has been here before. He knows how to play the game.

[Badger]

Mercedes basically have zero upgrsdes and are still the fastest. Mercedes advantage gives the luxury of massaging that upgrade to perfection, biding their time to release it the opportune moment.

We know they like Canada, Silverstone, Singapore? as their upgrade cadence.

They have one engine upgrade to go, same as Ferrari, Mclaren poses no threat to them.
Red Bull and Ferrari have brought extensive aero upgrades in the last 2 GP.
And they still have the better car.

Mercedes probably has a new upgrade batch ready to go and a opportunity to take a major step with the engine.
They can also put some reliability upgrades given the failures.
Plus given what Mr Paddy Lowe said about not running the 2014 engines to their full potential i can't help but wonder if that isn't the case now.

What Ferrari did in Barcelona was impressive, but if they mirrored Lewis strategy they probably still win, Russell had everything in control for the first 2 stints.

I’m not sure they will use the extra ADUO homologation this year. They clearly weren’t expecting to get it so would not have planned around rehomologating their engine mid season. I think they just invest their resources into next year, now with the extra budget and bench time from ADUO. The engines will be a bit different now for next season.

[Farnborough]

Seeing the confidence and very calculated aggression from Toto caught me off guard and communicated, at least to me, that he has a vendetta towards Ferrari in some sense. It really surprised me. My gut says they are going to lay waste the remainder of the season and yes, it feels very much like 2014. This dude has been here before. He knows how to play the game.

There's an "iceberg" coming too, that some may crash into.

Cost cap is (as I understand it) based on 21 races, with additional $1.8 m for each race above that. Plus extra for sprint.

If the total for this year was 24 races, and teams have spent in schedule (already committed, planned, gone etc) then two races are removed, then their spending plan will overshoot the cap without the two missing races taking place. Budget to cap expenditure being somewhat front loaded, teams often scraping by at season end with low spares inventory etc.

They'll (some) likely need to "call back" budget already deployed, or try and reinstate missing races to cover the projected discrepancy.

Someone with a assured attitude may be confident in avoiding this eventuality.

[basti313]

I’m not sure they will use the extra ADUO homologation this year. They clearly weren’t expecting to get it so would not have planned around rehomologating their engine mid season. I think they just invest their resources into next year, now with the extra budget and bench time from ADUO. The engines will be a bit different now for next season.

They would be stupid if they use ADUO for ICE power. They played it smart, no reason to believe otherwise.
So my take is the following if ADUO rules stay like this:
- Do not improve on ICE power. This keeps all others at distance and allows to extract the ERS advantage. This will give Merc also ADUO next year, no ADUO for Redbull and maybe no ADUO for Ferrari if they already did improve on ICE power.
- Change the cooling layout. This will keep McLaren at a distance for at least another half season.

[DDopey]

I still dont get how ADUO is going to function with the new engine rules for '27. All engines need to be changed for the fuel flow and battery power. I really dont think FIA will be able to only allow specific changes to the engines to run with the new power distribution.

[search]

With mediums he would have been dead in the water even earlier, an easy target for Antonelli.

if you don't use mediums for a 20 lap sprint in the end, then there's no point in saving them to begin with. And doing so almost cost them Q3 even