McLaren and Mercedes have been tipped by former F1 strategist Bernie Collins to be the front-runners of the 11-team grid next year.<\/p>\n
The sport will undergo a major change in 2026 with major modifications being made to the aerodynamics and power units, threatening to cause a significant shake-up to the current pecking order.<\/p>\n
Paddock rumours have suggested Mercedes’ power unit is set to be the pick of the field and place it at the head of the pack.<\/p>\n
With McLaren possessing the strongest package this year and also running the Mercedes unit, Collins believes the championship fight could end up between the two manufacturers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough we all believe the Mercedes engine is going to be the best next year, that engine is also in the McLaren,\u201d Collins told Sky F1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the Mercedes-McLaren battle might be the big one next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t really have anything that tells me Mercedes is definitely on top of that over McLaren when you see McLaren’s car performance currently.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo drivers within a team that are pushing each other really hard in every session is what you need to develop a car and a new breed of regulation, and that will really help both Mercedes and McLaren.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mercedes will continue with its line-up of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in 2026, with the latter having a full season of experience under his belt.<\/p>\n
Collins believes Antonelli will be a vastly improved driver in his second season and will have the confidence to push the more experienced Russell.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge will always feel he’s got the upper hand in terms of experience within that team, at least,\u201d\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMercedes are generally pretty even-handed with how they make decisions and how they go racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cKimi having one full year under the belt, and getting over some of the disappointment of this year, some of the things that he struggled with, will definitely help.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he will be fit to push George. I think what’s important for Mercedes is if both drivers are pushing each other, that is the best way to develop a car and that is the best way to get the best feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren and Mercedes have been tipped by former F1 strategist Bernie Collins to be the front-runners of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":280723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-280722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}