Toto Wolff has underlined the jeopardy facing Mercedes \u2014 and by extension other F1 teams \u2014 ahead of the new season getting underway.<\/p>\n
The 2026 campaign will see all-new chassis and power unit regulations, with the significantly altered rulebook set to shake up the F1 pecking order.<\/p>\n
Heading into the year, Mercedes is expected to be a frontrunner, in no small part due to how the Brackley-based squad aced the transition to turbo-hybrid power units when the engine rules last changed in 2014.<\/p>\n
It set the silver arrows up for eight consecutive constructors’ championships, with the chassis side of the team also delivering to a high standard.<\/p>\n
Whilst the team faltered during the contemporary ground-effects era, which began in 2022, the expectation throughout the F1 paddock is that Mercedes will return to championship contention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team has insisted that speculation of this kind has not originated from within, and, at this stage, the rumour mill is purely relative and academic.<\/p>\n
And Wolff is acutely aware of the risks facing the teams. When asked in his end-of-season review whether his team will be strong in 2026, he replied: “Well, I would very much hope so.<\/p>\n
“But I’m a notorious pessimist, and the glass is always half empty rather than half full. And we’ve set ourselves targets on the power unit and the same on the chassis.<\/p>\n
“Whether those targets were ambitious enough, whether we have missed the trick, whether our execution is going to be as faultless as it should be, I don’t know.”<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThe name of the game<\/p>\n