Toto Wolff labels unseen F1 testing incident as major 2026 clue

Mercedes CEO and team principal Toto Wolff highlighted an on-track overtake at the Barcelona shakedown, insisting it offered a clue into how wheel-to-wheel racing could play out this year.

F1 has seen the introduction of new technical regulations this year, with changes being made to both the aerodynamic and engine rules.

The teams were present in Barcelona last week as they gathered initial data on their cars, with Mercedes walking away from the shakedown with an impressive 500 laps set across three days.

As part of the new rules, drivers will be forced to manage the extra energy deployment they have available throughout the lap, which could create significant speed differentials during wheel-to-wheel combat.

Wolff saw evidence of this in Barcelona, when George Russell allegedly overtook another driver with a major speed gap.

“I don’t see any worse points,” Wolff told media including RacingNews365 when asked about the new cars.

“I’m not overselling here or trying to make a product better than it is, but I think the cars are awesome.

“How they look, they look spectacular. They look like F1 cars again. They’re not too small, they’re not too big. They’re not like the whales of the past. The aesthetics are very good.”

“I like the engine concept in terms of the boost. George [Russell] went past [Franco] Colapinto whilst Colapinto was doing his long runs, it was like 50 or 60 kilometres straight-line speed difference.

“That is super exciting, where and when and how the drivers are going to deploy and optimise that.”

Esteban Ocon noted after the test that he expected overtaking to be more challenging for the drivers this year.

Wolff, however, has reached a different conclusion: “We are going to see much more overtaking. 

“We’re going to see it in areas that we wouldn’t expect it.

“Apart from the fact of the quickest cars, the best drivers, it’s also going to have this additional dimension of intelligent driving and tactics that are going to be easy to understand for F1.

“So far, I haven’t really seen any negatives. I wouldn’t bullshit or oversell anything that I don’t believe. For me so far, it’s ticked all the boxes.”