Mercedes dominates
If during the pre-season the teams bounced the role of favorite from each other, during the qualifying of the Australian Grand Prix they had to shed their mask and F1 2026 unequivocally showed the great favourite for this season: the Mercedes.
Of course, this is the first qualification of a championship of twenty-four races, but the advantage that the Silver Arrows have over their rivals seems significant and only a very steep development curve of their opponents could call into question what seemed to be their dominance.
Was Mercedes hiding?
To the microphones of Sky Sports UKthe co-owner and team principal of Mercedes – Toto Wolff – addressed the topic in his usual style, essentially denying: “Everyone will say, ‘Look, they were hiding. They had so much more.’ But you can’t hide the cards or at least, we can’t do it because we don’t know where the machine is. Sometimes we had 10kg of extra petrol? Maybe yes. But we still don’t have enough confidence in understanding these machines to pack more weight for the purpose of hiding. We are surprised too, but I accept it”.
