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Championship position: 1st (Eight wins, 379 points) Mercedes was widely expected to hit the ground running under new regulations and its W17, along with its power unit, makes it the best overall package. It is fronting both World Championships, with a healthy buffer, and is on course to end its five-year title drought. But it hasn’t been quite as plain sailing as pre-season and the early couple of rounds suggested. Predictions that Mercedes could re-find the dominance of 2014-16, when the V6 power units were introduced, proved to be wide of the mark. It has been beaten to victory in three of the past five grands prix, after an unbeaten start to the campaign, and it has not finished 1-2 since China. Opponents have developed strongly, reliability glitches have reared their heads, and George Russell’s side of the garage has had a miserable string of setbacks and frustrations. The reliability problems led to battery fixes that offset the allocation for 2026 and consequently means both drivers are set for grid penalties at some stage post-summer. “We need to be really strategic about when to bring the upgrades, when do we think they will have the biggest impact on performance, rather than just throwing it on at every grand prix,” said boss Toto Wolff. “We are bringing upgrades, we’re closely monitoring how much we can bring, [in terms of] cost cap for the season we’re in a good spot, we tried to have it a little bit more second half of the season weighted, let’s see if it is enough.” Kimi Antonelli’s emergence as a bona fide championship leader has happened at a rapid rate. Antonelli capped his rookie campaign strongly in 2025, with podiums and eye-catching race pace, but few could have anticipated such a meteoric rise in 2026, even accounting for Mercedes’ pace-setting machinery. Only 15 teenagers have ever raced in Formula 1, yet Antonelli is already a six-time race winner and holds a 50-point buffer in the title race as he strives to become the youngest World Champion—by a distance—and only the fifth driver ever to win a championship in his first two seasons. Antonelli’s highs have been sensational while he has maximized his and Mercedes’ few off-days, such as in Hungary, which is always key in an arduous campaign. He has also accepted the setbacks with good grace, such as his retirement in Barcelona and race-wrecking component failure in Britain. The only time he appeared resentful of a situation was in Canada, after scrapping against George Russell in Sprint, but that was quickly put to one side. There have still been flaws, such as a practice crash in Australia that compromised his set-up heading into qualifying, and there remains a tendency to exceed track limits too frequently to risk a time penalty. But it has been extraordinary to witness a driver of such youth and inexperience have this level of performance and all-round aptitude and level-headedness. “I think I’ve been one of the best [drivers], I wouldn’t say the best, but looking back I think we were the ones doing the least amount of mistakes, it’s what brought us here now and making good results,” said Antonelli. “Of course we’ve had a really good car as well, on my side what I can be happy about is execution-wise, together with the team, we’ve done an incredible job, and that allowed us to be in this position.” It all looked great for George Russell in 2026—for about the first eight days of the race season. Russell’s opening round victory from pole position in Australia was meant to set the tone for the campaign but instead he has had a dreadful run. Russell can justifiably point to reliability setbacks, mysterious issues with his car—eventually attributed to an algorithm glitch—and pure bad luck, such as Safety Car timings or one of several drivers to be slapped with a speeding penalty in Monaco, but overall he has been the slower of the two Mercedes drivers more often than not. There was a moment in the season where it appeared as if Mercedes would have to manage a Hamilton-Rosberg style scrap for the title, but such has been Russell’s troubles that simply returning the Briton to being a regular contender must now be the priority. U.K.-based Phillip Horton started covering Grands Prix while still at university and swiftly deemed that writing about Formula 1 and the behind-the-scenes machinations was much more engaging than reading centuries-old novels. Degree gained, he went on to cover the sport full-time from 2014 and is as intrigued and excited by the destinations Formula 1 visits during its lengthy annual world tour as the racing itself. Phillip joined Autoweek in 2021 and while he has just about learned to spell in American English he has yet to find anywhere in America that makes a proper cup of tea.