{"id":897003,"date":"2026-09-15T19:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897003\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T19:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:52:10","slug":"get-ready-for-many-mercedes-records-plus-does-madrid-need-to-change-its-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897003\/","title":{"rendered":"Get ready for many Mercedes records. Plus: Does Madrid need to change its track?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I\u2019m looking back on Kimi Antonelli\u2019s latest victory this Formula 1 season. For a change, he didn\u2019t really deserve to win (the driver who did deserve to win was the very fast Lando Norris<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Alex, and Madeline Coleman will be along later.<\/p>\n

Record Result: Mercedes ties a historic victory total<\/p>\n

Two years before he died in 1988, Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari won a political battle he personally found very important \u2014 to get F1 to return to using naturally aspirated engines (including V12s, in this case).<\/p>\n

Sound familiar<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Ferrari was very keen on this for two reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One, because his team had failed under the turbocharged rules that McLaren-TAG-Porsche and McLaren-Honda had mastered as the 1980s wore on.
\nTwo, because Enzo still viewed Ferrari as \u201cessentially an engine manufacturer.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Ferrari\u2019s Maranello factory in northern Italy, it was a source of immense pride that the team was able to wrestle back the mantle for most F1 wins for an engine builder, when it moved back ahead of Ford\u2019s 176 total at the 2004 United States GP.<\/p>\n

Ferrari has held that record, which now sits at 251 wins after Charles Leclerc\u2019s victory at Silverstone<\/a>, ever since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why does this matter now? Because Mercedes, which in 2004 had reached a grand total of 43 F1 engine wins, has EQUALED FERRARI on 251, with Antonelli\u2019s victory in Madrid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Had Norris converted his stunning speed<\/a> into victory on Sunday, most likely just by being a smidge luckier<\/a> with the timing of the race\u2019s virtual safety car activation, Mercedes still would\u2019ve gone to 251. Because the total includes all races won by both factory and customer engine programs.<\/p>\n

A few things stand out here:<\/p>\n

Only one of Ferrari\u2019s vast total came from a team other than its works squad (Sebastian Vettel\u2019s Ferrari-powered victory for Toro Rosso in the 2008 Italian GP).
\nMercedes\u2019 total comprises the combined totals from four teams \u2014 its works operations of the 1950s and the present day, plus McLaren, Brawn GP (these days, convolutedly, Mercedes) and Racing Point (these days, more straightforwardly, Aston Martin).
\nBut Mercedes\u2019 rate of engine wins in the modern era is remarkable. Since the 2004 U.S. GP, Ferrari has added 76 more engine wins. Mercedes? 208.<\/p>\n

Mercedes can take the record outright at F1\u2019s next race in Baku. And 20-year-old Antonelli is well on course<\/a> to smash the record for youngest F1 world champion (which is Vettel\u2019s at 23 years and 134 days, from 2010).<\/p>\n

And Ferrari? Well, with Lewis Hamilton basically conceding<\/a> the 2026 title fight, saying after his first retirement of the year \u201cthere\u2019s no stopping (Antonelli) or Mercedes this year,\u201d its streak without a title of either kind in F1 will hit 19 years in 2027.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s already three years longer than the previous biggest gap Ferrari faced between sealing either F1 title \u2014 the 16 years between its 1983 and 1999 constructors\u2019 championships. And it\u2019s also closing in on Ferrari\u2019s record 21-year stretch between Jody Scheckter\u2019s 1979 drivers\u2019 crown and Michael Schumacher\u2019s in 2000.<\/p>\n

That suggests a far deeper problem than just not producing F1\u2019s best engines \u2026<\/p>\n

New U.S. F3 Champ: Ugochukwu seals the 2026 title in Madrid<\/p>\n

One person who can so far count their stretch between titles in DAYS is American Formula 3 driver Ugo Ugochukwu, who sealed the 2026 F3 crown<\/a> in Madrid on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Ugochukwu, who is the first American champion since the category was created to sit on the F1 support bill in 2010, when it was called GP3.<\/p>\n

Previous winners include Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Leclerc, George Russell, Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto \u2014 fine company indeed!<\/p>\n

Inside the Paddock with Madeline Coleman: One man\u2019s misfortune is Verstappen\u2019s \u2026<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen managed to secure Red Bull\u2019s fifth podium in seven races, but showed Sunday that the team isn\u2019t exactly back. It\u2019s more that Verstappen benefited from others\u2019 misfortunes and a track with limited overtaking opportunities, something he admitted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe profit sometimes a little bit from some misfortune of others, but we are also trying to really maximize and sometimes, maybe, yes, slightly overperform,\u201d Verstappen said when asked about the RB22\u2019s competitiveness at upcoming tracks. \u201cAnd that\u2019s good. That\u2019s the only thing that we can do at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the three practice sessions at Madring, Verstappen never finished higher than fifth. And while he did go the quickest in Q2, he ultimately qualified third behind Norris and Antonelli.<\/p>\n

Verstappen walked away happy with that result on Saturday, though noting: \u201cThere were not really things that I left on the table, just more like a few limitations within the car that we know we have, plus the deployment in the final sector where we just didn\u2019t seem to maybe fully get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heading into Sunday, drivers already were raising the lack of overtaking opportunities at Madring (more on that below). Verstappen made one of the few passes as he overtook Antonelli, but he had to drop back, due to cutting the first turn in a battle with Hamilton and concerns about whether he gained a position by leaving the track. Even Antonelli was confused when Verstappen let him past, as he felt the overtake was normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have had damage at the start if I would have stayed on track, so then the win was also not on. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cI just did my own thing in Turn 1, but Lewis went for a move on the first two and bottomed out on the curb, so he just jumped back onto the track, and that\u2019s why I had to go off the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I would have stayed there, I would have definitely had contact. So, then my race could have potentially been over in Turn 2, and that\u2019s why I think, where we are now, I\u2019m happy to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen ultimately finished second, after Norris fell on the unlucky side of pitting when the virtual safety car period ended. The Dutchman felt they \u201cmaximized the result\u201d and noted he maybe was a bit lucky because of what happened to Norris.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have the pace of Kimi and I definitely did not have the pace of Lando,\u201d he said. \u201cSo yeah, we\u2019re here on the podium and I think that\u2019s, of course, great, but yeah, we just still lack a little bit to really fight for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it might have looked a little bit like we were in a fight for the win, but that was more because Kimi was getting held up by Charles. Because as soon as he had clean air, he just drove away from me again and I was busy with Lando behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to you, Alex.<\/p>\n

Passing Problems: Why the Madrid race was so dull<\/p>\n

There were some things to like about F1\u2019s new home in Madrid.<\/p>\n

The whole La Monumental complex looked straight out of a (decent) video game. The paddock was arranged around the cavernous halls of the IFEMA Madrid exhibition center (something very different for F1). And a city venue means fans can attend without having to schlep miles to see the racing action.<\/p>\n

The big problem, as Madeline explains here<\/a>, was the utter dearth of said action in Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

The chicane at the start of the Madring lap did create a frantic start (so far, so good). But otherwise, the layout just didn\u2019t lend itself to any overtaking (booo). And the exhibition center backdrop was bland on TV (it looked like a very big Formula E<\/a> race).
\nEven the long blast from Turns 3-5 ended in a lengthy curve, which meant drivers swinging across the racing line at the braking zone, eliminating passing chances.
\nAnd a tight chicane followed, which meant there was little hope of cars staying alongside if they ever got there.
\nThey then just spread out around the rest of the lap.<\/p>\n

It seemed to work in the Formula 2 and Formula 3 support categories, where there was plenty of action.\u00a0But these are spec series, where every car is identical.<\/p>\n

In F1, the different performance levels between different cars, plus their sophisticated aerodynamics, makes passing harder as the drivers struggle to run close together<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Add in a lack of overtaking spots, plus the 2026 engines<\/a> being less of a factor here, and you get Sunday\u2019s snoozefest.<\/p>\n

One thing that could spice up the action without drastic changes would be softer tires (last weekend tire supplier Pirelli brought its second-hardest combination of tires).<\/p>\n

This is because the many corners here heat the tires and cause them to fall apart and slow cars down, which would happen quicker with softer compounds. This tends to increase passing, when other cars have fresher rubber.<\/p>\n

But the track being draped around the IFEMA buildings<\/a> and the access roads the event uses means there\u2019s some space (but not unlimited space) for the layout to be redrawn for 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I really hope it happens. But at least the race organizers are aware changes are needed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Outside the Points<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd25 Norris\u2019 pole lap<\/a> was so fast on Saturday, he could survive a near-crash at the final corner and still beat Antonelli to pole, as Sam Joseph explained here.<\/p>\n

\u2757 Beleaguered Honda has a new F1 engine project boss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u203c\ufe0f And the upcoming F2 round in Baku will have an extra race, which suggests championship officials aren\u2019t super confident the season will end in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, as planned<\/a>. Luke Smith will have a full update on the end of this year\u2019s F1 schedule<\/a> (which F2 is tied to) later this week on The Athletic website.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-897003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}