Toto Wolff has stated he is “superstitious” and is not willing to declare Kimi Antonelli as the favourite for the F1 title this year.
Antonelli has enjoyed a highly successful first half to the 2026 season, winning six grands prix to extend his title advantage to 50 points by the summer break.
The Italian has enjoyed a considerable step forward in form compared to his rookie season display in 2025, when he was regularly out-paced by team-mate George Russell.
However, while Russell has endured his spell of poor luck, he has often not had the speed to keep up with his team-mate.
Despite the healthy advantage that Antonelli possesses, Wolff asserted he can't call him the favourite with such a long way to go.
“It's too early to say,” Wolff told media including RacingNews365.
“I'm superstitious, even though the gap is 50 points, there are so many races to go, a DNF or two can just swing massively.”
Mercedes has fielded a highly competitive car at the start of the sport's new era and has a healthy constructors' championship lead in hand to go alongside Antonelli's margin in the drivers' standings.
But its biggest weakness has related to reliability, with several incidents plaguing both of its drivers in the first half - and it's a shortcoming Wolff is all too aware of for the season's final stretch.
“We've not been great on reliability,” he said.
“We just have to continue to maximise every single day from the Friday onwards to the Sunday and then hopefully at the end that will be enough.”
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