Lewis Hamilton reveals secret Mercedes 'party mode': 'I know how it works'

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes is running a secret "party mode" engine setting in F1 qualifying, and warned his former team he "knows how that works".

Although Mercedes and George Russell have dominated qualifying so far in 2026, Hamilton's Ferrari team have been the closest competitor in both the Australian GP and Chinese GP Sprint races.

As qualifying has gone deeper, Mercedes has unlocked greater advantages over the field, with Hamilton 0.118s behind Russell in SQ1 in Shanghai's Sprint qualifying, before this gap grew to 0.801s in SQ2 and 0.641s in SQ3.

In grand prix qualifying, Hamilton was just under three tenths slower than Russell in Q1, and a similar amount behind Kimi Antonelli in Q2. 

In Q3, he ended 0.351s behind pole-sitter Antonelli, who became the youngest pole winner in F1 history.

Speaking after his third-place finish in the Sprint race, Hamilton revealed the 'party mode' his former team can access, which was first mentioned after his stunning pole lap at the 2018 Australian GP, in which he denied any such mode existed. 

"The difference is, I was with Mercedes for a long, long time, so I know how it works there," Hamilton told the media, including RacingNews365.

"In qualifying, they have another mode that they're able to go to, a bit like a ‘party mode’ back in the day, and once they get to Q2, they switch that on, and we don't have that.

"So, whatever that is. And then in the race, they obviously don't have that mode, so they still obviously have an advantage overall. 

"We've got to figure out what that is, but there's something more they're able to extract, particularly in Q2. 

"You see, [in Sprint qualifying] SQ1, we were not that far away, and then all of a sudden it's like a huge step. 

"A tenth in SQ1 behind, I think it was, and then all of a sudden it's seven tenths or another half a second. It's a big step."