2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

[kgath]

Does McLaren (customer teams) need to do millage test on the engine when Mercedes as the engine supplier will do it for them? They can run a different test program all together and benefit from what merc learns.

[Lasssept]

[Lasssept]

[Lasssept]

[MB_Racer]

Mercedes normally sandbags in testing so the times are looking veery good for them.

Very good point !

And extremely reliable but that is not a surprise …

[Emag]

Arrogant Mercedes makes a return
Safe to say they're feeling quite good for the time being.

[MB_Racer]

Very promising ! And Antonelli’s comments are very reassuring stuff!

Going back to pray for now

[WardenOfTheNorth]

Can we get lost with the Max to Merc crap already? It was boring last year, and it's even more boring this year.

Exactly!!

Besides I very much the impression from some of the press releases at launch that they are setting themselves up as a team that doesn't need the halo driver.

They'll hire the driver that is best for them and produce a car that wins.

So it's about the team, not the driver.

[PlatinumZealot]

Very promising ! And Antonelli’s comments are very reassuring stuff!

Going back to pray for now

George asserting dominance there.

[Lasssept]

[Badger]

Mercedes have really embraced the "favourite" tag, leading session after session in both lap count and laptimes. But it may be giving a slightly false impression because it seems like all their main rivals have chosen to not show anything yet. I don't get the impression that McLaren, Red Bull, or Ferrari is struggling with anything in particular, certainly not like 2014, they just haven't gotten as far into their run plan.

[Emag]

Mercedes have really embraced the "favourite" tag, leading session after session in both lap count and laptimes. But it may be giving a slightly false impression because it seems like all their main rivals have chosen to not show anything yet. I don't get the impression that McLaren, Red Bull, or Ferrari is struggling with anything in particular, certainly not like 2014, they just haven't gotten as far into their run plan.

There is no indication from other teams that they intend to do any “performance” running, which George explicitly stated yesterday as one of their goals for today.

Rob Marshall for example pointed at the unrepresentative track conditions which from their own perspective makes it less valuable to try and dial the car in.

We can do some higher quality speculation from the test in Bahrain, once we have a little more data available as well.

But in any case, every single indication we have from this test is positive for Mercedes. So at the moment, they look good. That’s about as much as you can say with confidence. What is “good” will probably be a little clearer after the bahrain test.

[SB15]

Mercedes have really embraced the "favourite" tag, leading session after session in both lap count and laptimes. But it may be giving a slightly false impression because it seems like all their main rivals have chosen to not show anything yet. I don't get the impression that McLaren, Red Bull, or Ferrari is struggling with anything in particular, certainly not like 2014, they just haven't gotten as far into their run plan.

I really don't like the "false impression", "testing means nothing", or "lap times in testing are meaningless" narrative. We've seen last year in Bahrain testing with the Mclaren's race pace was monumental while ending up dominating the first part of the season. In 2023, Redbull did a collected 400+ laps and clocked in the fastest lap with Sergio Perez and that car ended up dominating the entire season except for 1 race in Singapore, plus during that year the Aston Martin actually was performing quite well in testing and was better than expected during the first part of the season.

Let's also not forget in 2014 where the Mercedes engine was clearly the most reliable of the entire grid and the team logged in the most laps on the final day where "unsurprisingly" dominated the whole season.

I know the premise of false dawns and it's best to careful, and some teams aren't "showing their hand" which I completley agree with! But really we shouldn't conclusive to something that is "meaningless".

Mercedes doing a 200KM shakedown in the wet immediately after showing their car, and logging in the most laps with the fastest lap in the last 2 days of Barcelona testing, should not be understated. I don't think this is the whole story for the W17, so we'll see in Bahrain how it goes.

[the EDGE]

Mercedes have really embraced the "favourite" tag, leading session after session in both lap count and laptimes. But it may be giving a slightly false impression because it seems like all their main rivals have chosen to not show anything yet. I don't get the impression that McLaren, Red Bull, or Ferrari is struggling with anything in particular, certainly not like 2014, they just haven't gotten as far into their run plan.

I really don't like the "false impression", "testing means nothing", or "lap times in testing are meaningless" narrative. We've seen last year in Bahrain testing with the Mclaren's race pace was monumental while ending up dominating the first part of the season. In 2023, Redbull did a collected 400+ laps and clocked in the fastest lap with Sergio Perez and that car ended up dominating the entire season except for 1 race in Singapore, plus during that year the Aston Martin actually was performing quite well in testing and was better than expected during the first part of the season.

Let's also not forget in 2014 where the Mercedes engine was clearly the most reliable of the entire grid and the team logged in the most laps on the final day where "unsurprisingly" dominated the whole season.

I know the premise of false dawns and it's best to careful, and some teams aren't "showing their hand" which I completley agree with! But really we shouldn't conclusive to something that is "meaningless".

Mercedes doing a 200KM shakedown in the wet immediately after showing their car, and logging in the most laps with the fastest lap in the last 2 days of Barcelona testing, should not be understated. I don't think this is the whole story for the W17, so we'll see in Bahrain how it goes.

Last year, Williams and Ferrari set the fastest times, & Mercedes, Hass and racing balls covered the most laps separated by just 4

Where did that get them?

[Cassius]

Mercedes have really embraced the "favourite" tag, leading session after session in both lap count and laptimes. But it may be giving a slightly false impression because it seems like all their main rivals have chosen to not show anything yet. I don't get the impression that McLaren, Red Bull, or Ferrari is struggling with anything in particular, certainly not like 2014, they just haven't gotten as far into their run plan.

I really don't like the "false impression", "testing means nothing", or "lap times in testing are meaningless" narrative. We've seen last year in Bahrain testing with the Mclaren's race pace was monumental while ending up dominating the first part of the season. In 2023, Redbull did a collected 400+ laps and clocked in the fastest lap with Sergio Perez and that car ended up dominating the entire season except for 1 race in Singapore, plus during that year the Aston Martin actually was performing quite well in testing and was better than expected during the first part of the season.

Let's also not forget in 2014 where the Mercedes engine was clearly the most reliable of the entire grid and the team logged in the most laps on the final day where "unsurprisingly" dominated the whole season.

I know the premise of false dawns and it's best to careful, and some teams aren't "showing their hand" which I completley agree with! But really we shouldn't conclusive to something that is "meaningless".

Mercedes doing a 200KM shakedown in the wet immediately after showing their car, and logging in the most laps with the fastest lap in the last 2 days of Barcelona testing, should not be understated. I don't think this is the whole story for the W17, so we'll see in Bahrain how it goes.

In the sessions in which RB participated they were fastest overall. It is just that Mercedes have had 2 more days in the dry vs most others. Not saying it is not impressive what we have seen so far, but it is a bit premature to give them the favorite tag based on what we have seen until today.