Toto Wolff issued a warning after Mercedes’ dominant start to the 2026 Formula 1 season. The team principal stated that the favorite status can disappear quickly, especially with competitors closing in throughout the championship.
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The German team started the new regulations as the main force on the grid, with George Russell winning the Australian GP and Kimi Antonelli taking victories in Shanghai and Suzuka. Even so, Wolff highlighted that the championship is still in its early stages and that it is too early for any comparison with dominant periods of the past.
The last time Mercedes started a regulation change with similar performance was in 2014. On that occasion, the team built a historic era, winning every constructors’ championship until 2021, but the Austrian executive avoided drawing parallels with that moment.
“First, we need to keep our feet on the ground. We are only three races in, we look like heroes now, but in three races they might say we are no longer heroes because others have won the trophy,” Wolff stated during the weekend in Japan.
The executive reinforced that he does not want to compare the current start with the team’s most successful period: “I wouldn’t want, at this stage, to compare the era of success with what we have started now,” he said.
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Wolff also recalled that, during the ground-effect car era, Mercedes was not in the direct fight for titles. Even so, according to him, the team never lost confidence that it could return to the top of Formula 1.
“Definitely, we never stopped believing that eventually we would arrive at a car and build the structures that could do that with the right drivers,” he added.
The team principal also highlighted that seeing this process finally paying off is a source of satisfaction within Mercedes: “Seeing all of this finally coming together is something positive,” concluded Wolff, while maintaining a cautious tone in view of the expected evolution of opponents throughout the season.
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