Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has denied that his squad's power unit is leagues above the rest of the competition at the start of the sport's new era.
The Brackley-based outfit has enjoyed a successful opening half to the 2026 season with eight wins from 11 grands prix.
It possesses a healthy lead in both championship standings, with Kimi Antonelli leading the drivers' table following a meteoric jump in form after a challenging rookie season in 2025.
However, at recent events, Mercedes has seemingly been caught by its rivals, with Ferrari winning twice and McLaren triumphing once in the last five grands prix.
Having enjoyed a dominant stretch for several years at the start of the last power unit regulation change in 2014, Wolff does not believe a repeat of that supremacy is on the cards this time around.
“What made us so dominant at the beginning of the 2014 hybrid era was that for a long time our power unit was very much dominant,” Wolff exclusively told RacingNews365.
“Today you can see that Ferrari is very close to us.
“If we drop the ball with a setup error or with an upgrade not coming versus them having an upgrade, then you're quickly on the back foot.
“So I don't think we will see this kind of era of dominance anymore in F1.”
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As part of the new regulations introduced this year, the FIA implemented the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system to give extra help to manufacturers lagging behind the benchmark.
However, the system only relates to the combustion engine, with the first ADUO period finding that Red Bull's component was the strongest.
Wolff acknowledged that Mercedes likely has the strongest package as a whole but insisted that its advantage is minimal over its direct rivals.
“The FIA says on the combustion engine, it's Red Bull,” he said. “That's how they measure. Maybe as an overall package, it's us.
“Ferrari keeps whinging that they don't have the strongest engine.
“But I think they have an absolutely competitive power unit in a car that was designed to be high downforce with winglets that cover half the exhaust.
“So I think we're pretty much all on par.”
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