The numbers say Mercedes: whoever wins the first 3 GPs has the Drivers’ title in their pocket. The exception 50 years ago

Mercedes, record start The closer we got to the 2026 World Championship, the more the paddock whispered about Mercedes’ superiority. The rumors have become reality, and now Formula 1 finds itself once again dominated by Toto Wolff’s team. The W17 driven by George Russell and Kimi Antonelli defeated the competition in Melbourne, Shanghai and Suzuka, missing out only in Japan. And such obvious initial expressions of superiority almost always translate into titles. For the 17th time in 77 championships, a team won the first three races of the season: on all previous occasions the team took home at least one Drivers’ and Constructors’ title, while in 16 out of 17 it celebrated the Drivers’ World Championship at the end of the year. The exception dates back to 50 years ago: in 1976 Ferrari started very strong, winning the Interlagos and Kyalami events with Niki Lauda and Long Beach with Clay Regazzoni. The title, as is well known, went to James Hunt, but the crash at the Nürburgring (which ousted the Austrian from three GPs) and the deluge of Fuji, under which Lauda himself refused to race, still affected by what happened to him months earlier, had a decisive impact. Mercedes’ supremacy is expressed above all on the flying lap. It is the second time in the history of the Circus that a team has monopolized the front row in the first three rounds of the year: only McLaren managed to do so in 1999. If Antonelli and Russell also respect the prediction in Miami, Mercedes will become the only team to start the championship with a poker of front rows.