A very strong Mercedes
The first part of the 2026 world championship has been archived with the three-week break spanning the month of August, Mercedes can certainly make a very positive assessment.
In 11 Grand Prix, the Silver Arrows have won on 8 occasions, bringing home 10 pole positions. A true dominance, reflected in the world championship standings, where it leads both among constructors – with a 72-point margin over Ferrari – and among drivers – with Andrea Kimi Antonelli +50 over Ferrari.
The Achilles’ heel of the W17
However, there is one aspect that has been causing more than a headache for Toto Wolff – the head of the Mercedes team – for a few weeks now: that related to reliability.
Incidents like the one that happened to Russell in Canada or Antonelli’s in Barcelona have deprived the team of important points, which could have allowed them to further extend their lead in the standings.
The penalty for Antonelli
Connected to the reliability issue, it should be noted that Antonelli has already used 4 ICEs after just 11 races and is therefore at the penalty limit.
This is exactly what Toto Wolff spoke about after the Budapest race: “I sincerely hope we won’t have to serve the penalty, but if we do, we have to decide when to take it and on which circuit“.
Read more Rally Finland 2026: schedule and TV times
Add FormulaPassion to your Favorite Sources on Google
There are two most popular options logically: “One of these circuits could be particularly special for Kimi, but on paper it seems to be a good place to take the penalty. So we will have to talk to Marco (Antonelli, Andrea Kimi’s father, ed.) to understand if we want to take it at Monza. Otherwise Baku is also a possibility: maybe we could choose it to relieve pressure on Monza and not force Kimi to start from the back in front of the home crowd”.
