PlanetF1.com Awards: Best Grand Prix of the Year <\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m a little bit in two minds, because in 10 years, you look back at the stats and you can see a vice-world champion, P2,\u201d the team principal admitted during the team\u2019s end-of-season review.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the reality is that we didn\u2019t achieve our goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to win. We want to win races. We want to be in the hunt for a World Championship and hopefully win. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we didn\u2019t. And that is the pain of the moment that it just wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next season, however, will be a reboot for Formula 1\u2019s pecking order.<\/p>\n
The F1 2026 season will feature a major set of regulation changes with all-new cars on the grid that feature active aerodynamics, and that will be powered by revised engines.<\/p>\n
Formula 1 will welcome \u2018Overtake Mode\u2019 and \u2018Boost Mode\u2019, power boosts in attack, although \u2018Overtake Mode\u2019 will only be active in what was, in 2025, a DRS zone.<\/p>\n
\u2018Active aero\u2019 is perhaps one of the more intriguing introductions as the drivers will be able to activate the wings, front and rear, as required for corners and straights.<\/p>\n
But while Mercedes has been tipped to be the favourite given its 2014 gains in the V6 era, Wolff reckons the \u201creal hybrid\u201d era will be \u201cfascinating\u201d to see how it unfolds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a very successful spell over those years,\u201d the Austrian said. \u201cWe won eight championships, but we had difficult years that followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so this one era ends, an era that we will be looking back on with a lot of positive memories, mostly positive memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now we are starting in the real hybrid era. We are driving 50% electric engines, with sustainable fuel, and that almost pops \u2014 gives it one notch of innovation more.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I just came out of the simulator watching the car drive; it\u2019s going to be fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mercedes has yet to announce when it will launch its 2026 car, the W17, but it will be on track in late January for a behind-closed-door test with its rivals.<\/p>\n
The teams will be in action in three separate outings, the first taking place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from January 26-30. The second, which will be open to the public and media, will be hosted by the Bahrain International Circuit from February 11-13 with the third from the 18-20 February.<\/p>\n
After that, the 11 teams will head to Melbourne for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Read next: George Russell makes telling appreciation admission over Mercedes contract talks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes may have finished runner-up to McLaren in the Constructors\u2019 Championship, but over 350 points down on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,945,44,85,4703],"class_list":["post-366903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-toto-wolff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366903","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=366903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}