Mercedes feel the pressure of the development race

Mercedes may still lead both Formula 1 world championship standings, but Toto Wolff has acknowledged that his team cannot simply spend its way out of the growing threat from McLaren and Ferrari.

The Mercedes team principal said the team “haven't got the money to put developments on the car” needed to respond immediately to its rivals’ more frequent updates. Mercedes has continued with its planned development schedule for the W17, allocating its budget across the season under Formula 1’s $215 million 2026 cost cap.

Mercedes dominated the opening phase of the new regulations, winning the first six races. However, its advantage has narrowed significantly: the team has won only two of the last six races, matching Ferrari and McLaren during that period. McLaren has taken the last two victories after introducing upgrades at successive events, while Mercedes’ most recent major package arrived at the Canadian Grand Prix in late May.

Wolff defends Mercedes’ spending strategy

Wolff said Mercedes had followed its original financial and technical plan rather than bringing forward additional upgrades to counter McLaren’s recent surge.

“We haven't got the money to put developments on the car,” Wolff said. “We are trying to evenly split that through the season based on our calculations of when we can bring the biggest updates and optimising the championship points.”

He suggested that every major update can be worth several tenths of a second per lap, meaning Mercedes is currently losing ground in a development battle that has become increasingly decisive.

Wolff also rejected the idea that Mercedes necessarily spent heavily at the start of the year to secure its early advantage. Instead, he pointed to the team’s organisational structure and admitted that reliability failures had cost the squad between 50 and 100 points in Montreal, Barcelona and Silverstone.

“Other than that, we are continuing to execute that the plan was and what the financial realities mean for us,” Wolff said.

McLaren expects Mercedes to respond

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was unconvinced by Wolff’s suggestion that Mercedes lacks the resources to mount a stronger late-season response. Stella pointed to a special allowance linked to the 2027 power-unit regulations, saying teams could have an additional $3 million available in their 2026 cost-cap reporting.

Stella believes Mercedes has already developed more performance away from the circuit and will soon convert it into track upgrades.

“I'm sure their car in the wind tunnel is quite a bit faster than the car they have on track,” Stella said. “They will want to now convert some of this potential into upgrades that make it to the real car.”

Mercedes drivers expect a difficult spell before the next package

McLaren’s momentum was clear at Zandvoort, where Lando Norris won ahead of Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. Norris has now secured consecutive victories on either side of Formula 1’s summer break.

Russell said the result was not a major surprise after Norris had also won in Budapest, noting the similarities between the two circuits, including long corners, high tyre degradation and likely two-stop strategies. He warned that McLaren could remain the benchmark for the next two or three races before Mercedes introduces more performance.

Antonelli, meanwhile, admitted that Mercedes is no longer the fastest car on the grid and described the team as probably the second- or third-quickest package in the Zandvoort race. Despite that, he remains confident in the next Mercedes upgrade.

“The team has been working super hard on this next package that is coming up, and they just want to make sure that it's going to work out well once we put it on,” Antonelli said.

Antonelli still extended his championship advantage over Russell and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton to 59 points. The Italian Grand Prix at Monza will provide a different test, with high-speed straights and tight chicanes likely to produce a different competitive order. Russell expects Mercedes to be “slightly more competitive” there, although he considers McLaren the team to beat.