Why Mercedes finds other F1 teams' upgrades "scary" with its out-of-phase plan
2 sources·Updated 1 hr ago·279 pts
Mercedes's decision to push the W17's design to the limit caused it to fall 'out of phase' in 2026 development compared to other teams.
Decision to push W17's design to the limit led to Mercedes lagging behind other teams in 2026's F1 development battle
How bad is it really?
Mercedes have scored 77 points across the last 3 rounds, down from 83 in the 3 before.
Their car is currently the quickest on the grid over a qualifying lap.
Best finish in that run: 1st.
The coverage
- How far to trust it
- The strongest sourcing here is Motorsport.com and Autosport, a first-tier outlet - the tier that generally does its own reporting. We rate every outlet we track on how often it reports a story first and how often it holds up.
- Who else has it
- 2 independent outlets are carrying this: Motorsport.com, Autosport.
- Where the sources differ
- Autosport reports Mercedes's out-of-phase development strategy caused lag, no dispute from Motorsport.com.
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