{"id":456509,"date":"2026-02-03T21:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/456509\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T21:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:59:14","slug":"brundle-flags-one-f1-team-that-has-hit-the-sweet-spot-after-barcelona-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/456509\/","title":{"rendered":"Brundle flags one F1 team that has hit the sweet spot after Barcelona testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martin Brundle<\/a> believes the Mercedes team have put together a strong and cohesive package with its 2026 car.\u201cThey look like they’ve sort of aced this completely different set of regulations.\u201d- Martin BrundleThe former F1<\/a> driver turned pundit expressed his belief that the Brackley-based team appears to have mastered the new regulations. However, Brundle was quick to temper expectations, stressing that the true test will come under proper race conditions.<\/p>\n

“Clearly, they look like they’ve sort of aced this completely different set of regulations. But we need to see what it’s like on normal track temperatures. It’s going to be about power regeneration and filling their battery back up, but of course, they’ll regen as well as any other Mercedes-powered car, probably a Ferrari-powered car too,\u201d Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports column.<\/p>\n

“You might have a car that just fires its tyres up brilliantly on a cold day and then overheats them on a hot day, which is a problem we’ve seen Mercedes have before,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"mercedes-russell-barcelona.jpg\"\/<\/p>\n

George Russell – Photo: Mercedes-AMG F1 Team<\/p>\n

“I do think we need to stay calm on it, but you can’t ignore the relentless pace and reliability that they’ve shown. So, clearly, they’ve got a really good, cohesive package.”<\/p>\n

Brundle stressed that while it\u2019s still early days in F1<\/a>\u2019s new era, Mercedes may have found the \u201csweet spot\u201d under the new regulations.\u201cIt\u2019s too early to judge any team\u2019s concept, but I think Mercedes have found the sweet spot in the very early stages of F1<\/a>‘s new era.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through pre-season testing in Barcelona, Mercedes proved to have the most reliable package, completing more laps than any other team over the three-day window.<\/p>\n

However, team principal Toto Wolff has opted to temper expectations, noting that several other drivers, including Max Verstappen, <\/a>appear not to have unleashed their full potential yet.Vowles casts doubt over Mercedes\u2019 dominanceWhile Brundle is confident in Mercedes\u2019 progress, Williams Racing team boss James Vowles expects a closer fight. He suggested that the dominance Mercedes enjoyed in 2014 is unlikely to be repeated under the new regulations.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Vowles acknowledged the strength of Mercedes\u2019 engine package, particularly its reliability during pre-season testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin Brundle believes the Mercedes team have put together a strong and cohesive package with its 2026 car.\u201cThey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,79010,817,35119,813,816,22298,189983,85],"class_list":["post-456509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya","tag-f1","tag-f1-news","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-martin-brundle","tag-mercedes-amg-f1-team","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456509","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=456509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}