Earlier today, the Mercedes AMG F1 Team held its digital 2026 F1 season launch, where Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff shared his excitement about putting the W17’s competitiveness to the test once the new season starts, as well as about the 2026 F1 regulations, which he feels will contribute to the sport’s popularity.
The 2026 F1 regulations bring significant changes not only to the power unit but also to the car. Compared to its predecessor, Wolff describes the W17 as “smaller, compact, nimble, and agile,” topped off by “spectacular” livery.
“Good morning, first of all. It is super exciting.
“Looking at the car, you can clearly see the differences. It’s smaller, it’s compact, it’s nimble, it’s agile. I think this year also in terms of the livery, we’ve achieved something that is pretty spectacular.”
Over the course of last week’s 2026 F1 Barcelona Shakedown, the excitement to see how the 2026 F1 regulations will “pan out” once the season starts grew within the Mercedes F1 team.
“We’ve been in Barcelona, and we’ve seen those cars for the first time on speed, and we’re totally excited to see how the new power unit regulations and the new chassis regulations are going to pan out.”
Wolff on a “pretty successful” F1 2026 Barcelona Shakedown for Mercedes
Mercedes was the first team to hit the track at last week’s F1 2026 Barcelona Shakedown, with many believing that the German manufacturer will be the team to beat once the 2026 F1 season starts in March. In contrast, Mercedes’ CEO Toto Wolff believes that it is too early to proclaim a favorite for the 2026 F1 season as there is no “performance picture” across the grid yet.
Speaking about the highlights of the Barcelona Shakedown, Wolff cites the reliability of the Mercedes power unit and the car itself. Mercedes F1’s CEO notes that the Shakedown, which was mainly targeted at gaining mileage and checking whether all systems operate as intended, was “pretty successful”.
“I think the highlight in the Barcelona shakedown was the reliability of the power unit and the car. It was about clocking miles, about making sure that all the system would function properly, the interaction of the power unit and the chassis, fine-tuning some of the new toys that we have in boosting the engine, and that was pretty successful.
“Other than that, it’s really difficult to interpret times because we haven’t seen our competitors really on low fuel runs, neither have we seen them running really well over three days.
“Obviously, they had their problems, so we really don’t have a performance picture contrary to what many people think.”
Wolff believes that the 2026 F1 regulations will contribute to the sport’s popularity
F1 has experienced a rise in popularity and competitiveness in recent years, a trend Wolff believes will continue with the 2026 regulations. With drivers enabled to strategically control the engine’s power input, the 2026 F1 regulations introduce a new “chess-like” element that Wolff believes will be “fantastic.”
“I think they will have a great impact because we’re adding another dimension. When it was the DRS that allowed us to really slipstream each other and overtake, now we’re having more functionality.
“There is this strategic, almost chess-like component that comes into play where drivers can decide where they’re going to call upon more power. For overtaking and for doing these kind of games, I think it’s going to be fantastic.
“Also, for our younger audiences, it becomes even more of a video game character without taking anything away from the sport. Best man and best machine is going to win.”
Mercedes F1 Team is excited to see how competitive the W17 is, once the 2026 F1 season gets underway
After a “challenging” run during the previous regulation cycle, there is “excitement” at Mercedes to see whether the hard work that went into developing the W17, while also balancing the work on the previous car, will pay off once the 2026 F1 season gets underway.
“We obviously had some more challenging times in the last few years. Respectable, but challenging.
“There is so much love, determination, and passion that have gone into developing the power unit, which obviously has a very long lead time. It’s been many years that HPP (Mercedes High Performance Powertrain) has been working on the new power while keeping the current one, so the 2025 [power unit] running and competitive.
“On the chassis side, a monumental effort because we had our Navy SEAL team that made the best out of the 2025 car. That’s how we called it because it’s literally a small team that was deployed to win, that made the best out of the 2025 car.
“Then at the same time, practically most of the engineering side in Brackley that was working on the 2026 car. There is so much excitement that has already built up to see, is the car going to be good?”
Wolff was excited to see W17 hit the track during Shakedowns in Silverstone and Barcelona
“Yeah, it was exciting,” Wolff said about seeing the W17 out on the track for the first time ahead of the 2026 F1 season.
Ahead of the 2026 F1 Barcelona Shakedown, Mercedes held a private Shakedown at Silverstone, which the Mercedes CEO and team principal says didn’t offer the team any insight into the competitiveness, even though initial feedback from Russell and Antonelli was positive.
“Obviously, shakedown as completely normal over the last many years, wet, cold Silverstone. It’s difficult to interpret whether the car is quick, but Kimi [Antonelli] and George [Russell] said it feels all right.
“Then Barcelona, three days, calmly working through the process and seeing what the car can do. Obviously, with all the challenges that a new car will bring upon, starting to function and then a bit, so it was okay.”
