2026 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team

[Lasssept]

Nugnes | Motorsport Italy

- What if Mercedes plays the ADUO card at Monza to counter Ferrari’s offensive ?

..Mercedes, meanwhile, had publicly played down any plans to introduce its ADUO upgrade this year. However, fresh reports suggest the team is preparing an evolved M17 E Performance power unit at Brixworth. With both Antonelli and Russell having already exhausted their allocation of four engines, fitting the new unit in Monza — where grid penalties are less painful — would be a clever tactical move.

By doing so, Mercedes could immediately restore its straight-line advantage and respond forcefully to Ferrari’s offensive. For Kimi Antonelli, debuting the upgraded engine in front of the home crowd would carry extra significance

[AR3-GP]

Nugnes is writing nonsense again. Kimi Antonelli is not going to take a grid drop for a new PU at his home race.

[Lasssept]

Toto Wolff: “In terms of engine penalties, I still very much hope we don't need to take it and we need to decide when that is, when we need to take one and which tracks,”

“There could be one that can be very special for Kimi, but on paper it looks like it's a good place to take an engine penalty, so we need to speak to Marco [Antonelli, Kimi’s father] whether we want to take an engine penalty in Monza.

[AR3-GP]

Toto Wolff: “In terms of engine penalties, I still very much hope we don't need to take it and we need to decide when that is, when we need to take one and which tracks,”

“There could be one that can be very special for Kimi, but on paper it looks like it's a good place to take an engine penalty, so we need to speak to Marco [Antonelli, Kimi’s father] whether we want to take an engine penalty in Monza.

I am betting on Baku (2 races later).

[Big Tea]

Is there not something in the rules that says the driver must (paraphrased) directly control the engine? If the system can take over things like this then it can act as traction control and other disallowed functions.

[Farnborough]

Is there not something in the rules that says the driver must (paraphrased) directly control the engine? If the system can take over things like this then it can act as traction control and other disallowed functions.

Possible, of course, the traction that is. But this is not deployed strictly speaking, with 0 kmh and no traction event taking place.

The clutch is disengaged automatically too, in anti-stall software, then handed back to driver when he pulls the clutch paddle to go again.

There's rules, but at which point do they stop helpful intervention ? Usefull, but symptom of ridiculous complexity within PU design and performance criteria.

If it was simpler, then it wouldn't need so many rules and caveats. And monitoring with penalties attached

[venkyhere]

Is there not something in the rules that says the driver must (paraphrased) directly control the engine? If the system can take over things like this then it can act as traction control and other disallowed functions.

The moment F1 engines switched to 'hybrid' (or even from the time when it was KERS) - that automatically meant 'traction control' already came into existence, via the "software".

[Sergej]

Toto Wolff: “In terms of engine penalties, I still very much hope we don't need to take it and we need to decide when that is, when we need to take one and which tracks,”

“There could be one that can be very special for Kimi, but on paper it looks like it's a good place to take an engine penalty, so we need to speak to Marco [Antonelli, Kimi’s father] whether we want to take an engine penalty in Monza.

Was he joking ? Surely an engine penalty won't be decided by a driver's parent ?

[FittingMechanics]

Is there not something in the rules that says the driver must (paraphrased) directly control the engine? If the system can take over things like this then it can act as traction control and other disallowed functions.

This is why electrical power ramp up/ramp down speed is strictly proscribed, and the allowed values are not fast enough to work as traction control.

[Zynerji]

Is there not something in the rules that says the driver must (paraphrased) directly control the engine? If the system can take over things like this then it can act as traction control and other disallowed functions.

This is why electrical power ramp up/ramp down speed is strictly proscribed, and the allowed values are not fast enough to work as traction control.

Imagine the microrecovery this would add to the ERS system if allowed. it could be like an additional 5% over a lap!

[mclaren_mircea]

McLaren could be a new major contender in the championship, which would probably be an even greater disadvantage for Ferrari, given that they're behind Mercedes in the standings. It'll still be a battle in terms of upgrades—Ferrari will bring theirs, McLaren will continue with the package introduced in Budapest for the next 2 races, Mercedes should bring a big package around Singapore, so much further into the season

@Auto_Racer_it

This is beyound everything rational. Not just they are at least a big package behind Ferrari and Mclaren, but while thise team will have their third big package in Zanvoort-Monza, Mercedes will have only small bits here and there until Singapore... WTF are they doing.

[Lasssept]

[Badger]

Did Red Bull insist on the helmet when they heard who was driving the jet-ski?

[HungarianRacer]

McLaren could be a new major contender in the championship, which would probably be an even greater disadvantage for Ferrari, given that they're behind Mercedes in the standings. It'll still be a battle in terms of upgrades—Ferrari will bring theirs, McLaren will continue with the package introduced in Budapest for the next 2 races, Mercedes should bring a big package around Singapore, so much further into the season

@Auto_Racer_it

This is beyound everything rational. Not just they are at least a big package behind Ferrari and Mclaren, but while thise team will have their third big package in Zanvoort-Monza, Mercedes will have only small bits here and there until Singapore... WTF are they doing.

Singapore??!? So if Bahrain goes ahead, that's gonna be FIVE more races without major upgrades on the car?! Where did Allison put the development rate in this new reg-set again (that was about 3 months ago now, but still...), about a quarter of a second/month?

That package better put some daylight between them and McLaren & Ferrari again for it to be worth watching them fight for runner-up positions for potentially multiple races in a row... Starting from a 8 tenths/lap advantage at the begnning of the season (0.5sec in race pace at the very least even after the initial scrambling to optimize the new PUs better by lesser-prepared rivals). That is wild...

[AR3-GP]

McLaren could be a new major contender in the championship, which would probably be an even greater disadvantage for Ferrari, given that they're behind Mercedes in the standings. It'll still be a battle in terms of upgrades—Ferrari will bring theirs, McLaren will continue with the package introduced in Budapest for the next 2 races, Mercedes should bring a big package around Singapore, so much further into the season

@Auto_Racer_it

This is beyound everything rational. Not just they are at least a big package behind Ferrari and Mclaren, but while thise team will have their third big package in Zanvoort-Monza, Mercedes will have only small bits here and there until Singapore... WTF are they doing.

Singapore??!? So if Bahrain goes ahead, that's gonna be FIVE more races without major upgrades on the car?! Where did Allison put the development rate in this new reg-set again (that was about 3 months ago now, but still...), about a quarter of a second/month?

That package better put some daylight between them and McLaren & Ferrari again for it to be worth watching them fight for runner-up positions for potentially multiple races in a row... Starting from a 8 tenths/lap advantage at the begnning of the season (0.5sec in race pace at the very least even after the initial scrambling to optimize the new PUs better by lesser-prepared rivals). That is wild...

First the rumor was Belgium, then it was Zandvoort, then it became Monza, and now it's Singapore? Very strange.

It looks like Mercedes has been caught out by their terrible reliability and the canceled races in Bahrain and Jeddah. It didn't allow them to build a lead when they still had a significant performance advantage over the competition.