Mercedes address 2026 'favourites' tag after radical shake-up: 'It's not coming from us'

Mercedes has addressed the rumours of it being classed as F1 favourites heading into the radical 2026 shake-up in Formula 1. 

Throughout 2025, rival teams have claimed that Mercedes should be considered as the title favourites for grand prix racing's huge changes, with 2014 cited as evidence of the team acing such a major change.

For 2026, the power units are undergoing their single-biggest change since the turbo hybrids were introduced to usher in Mercedes' era of dominance, with the batteries set to be able to deploy three times as much electrical energy, up to 350kw, with the MGU-H being removed whilst 100% sustainable fuels will also be introduced.

On top of that, there are the chassis changes, including the introduction of active aerodynamics. 

Team boss Toto Wolff has indicated that the team believes it is on-track to meet its targets for the new season, but does not know if they are ambitious enough as rivals talk up the potential of the Mercedes package.

Addressing those rumours, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin, who has been with the Brackley squad since its BAR guise, insisted that work still had to be done and other teams would not be caught out as in 2014.

"I mean, we're not; everyone else is saying we're well prepared, but it is not coming from Mercedes," Shovlin told a group of select media, including RacingNews365 of the favourites tag.

"We had great success when we got a jump on everyone in 2009 when the team was Brawn, and in 2014, we got the jump on everyone, but teams learn not to let that happen.

"In some ways, they allowed us to get ahead as we switched development early; we started the power unit incredibly early for the V6 era, and people get wise to that.

"Having teams who suffered through those regulations, they learn to make sure they avoid it.

"So, how prepared are we? Eight weeks feels awfully short for the [2026 cars] to hit the track. There is not a lot of car if you came to Brackley now to show you, there is a huge amount of work to do. 

"But our mentality is that we're always behind and fighting to get to the front.

The article continues below.

'2026 is feeling a bit less scary'

During 2025, teams were faced with the challenge of still developing their current machines whilst having to prepare the new breed of car without taking too much attention off 2026.

To add a further complexity to the situation is that there is a short turnaround between the end of the 2025 season and beginning of the 2026 one.

The finale in 2025 was held on December 7th, with cars expected on-track in Barcelona for a behind-closed-doors test at the end of Janaury - with teams still required to fit in the winter shutdown period. 

Prior to official running in Barcelona, teams are expected to complete the usual shakedowns, officially filming days, in mid-Janaury, further compressing the already tight timetable. 

Analysing this, Shovlin explained some of the difficulties teams were facing. 

"There is a lot of work left to do; it is a bit less scary than it was perhaps a month ago, but you're always conscious that everyone has got the same resources these days," Shovlin added.

"The cost cap has meant you just can't bludgeon your way through to success with more cash than anyone else, and teams down the grid have got more wind-tunnel time than we've got, so that puts you on the back-foot. 

"There is an awful lot of that have put a great deal of effort into next year, and a few [teams] who seem to be developing late on, but there is no shortage of teams that have done very little work on the current cars. It is important that you start regulations on the front-foot.

"We can see a pathway through to getting something sensible on track in Barcelona, but there are an awful lot of things that will be challenging next year.

"The cars have never changed so comprehensively across a regulation set, even the ECU change is pretty significant in terms of how challenging it is to manage and how much there is to learn. 

"We'll keep working at it, and whenever we have made championship-winning cars, we never thought we went into a year thinking we had a championship-winning car. 

"You're better to think someone else will have one, and you're playing catch-up, and that mindset is what delivered success when we had it."