Mercedes has ominous message for rivals: 'PU feeling is similar to 2014'
Toto Wolff makes no secret of the fact that he hopes to pinch Max Verstappen away from Red Bull Racing. Mercedes may have an ace up their sleeve to achieve that goal: the engine for 2026. Technical director James Allison states that the feeling about the new engine is the same as at the start of the hybrid era, in which the German Formula 1 team dominated.
The previous major rule change in F1 in 2014 led to an unprecedented era of success for Mercedes. The team was the absolute benchmark when it came to power output and hopes to become so again when the new engine regulations are introduced. Meanwhile, Red Bull Powertrains faces an immense challenge with building their own engine - for the first time - in partnership with Ford.
Allison: 'Feeling about new Mercedes engine the same as in 2014'
Allison, who joined Mercedes in 2017 in the middle of the team's dominant period, talks about the state of development of the new engine for 2026. "I wasn't in the team in the run-up to 2014 when the new generation of power units were being concocted and the enormous push to make them a reality was taking place," says the technical director, who was at Ferrari at the time.
"But those of us in the team who were, tell me that the feeling is very similar," he adds. "There is a massive shove going on in HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] to make a success of that because it will set the course of anyone who's lucky enough to have that in the back of their car for some seasons to come. We're lucky that we will be on the receiving end of all the good investment they are making on our joint behalf."
Wolff: 'Mercedes still the benchmark in terms of engine'
Toto Wolff expressed similar words to GPblog and others. "We have an engine department that is good as it can be with a top leadership. There is not a millimetre in HPP that I wish would be different in terms of organisational set-up, in terms of the people that work there that I am lucky to interact with, it's just a perfect organisation," the team boss said.
The 52-year-old Austrian believes Mercedes is still leading in terms of the powerunit and sees that as a good omen for 2026. "They have are just delivering and have delivered for a long time. Since 2014 we have been pretty much the benchmark or with maybe another engine the benchmark, so that hasn't changed."I really can't wait for 2026 to come and see the different levels of performance of the power units," Wolff said.
I wonder why so many of you wasted time on commenting on another misleading title from GPblog. All I gather from Alison message is that they are at a similar focus and work intensity level like in 2014, the previous moment of extensive rule changes regarding the engine. Basically the same factory atmosphere. No reference to how competitive the engine will be. Only Toto speculates something on this side based purely on Merc experience in building good engines.
Ford is a weak player in F1 engine development. Cosworth was their savior. I am not sure who Ford will contract to build their engine as in-house expertise does not exist, unlike Honda and Ferrari. Ford will pay the bills.
My God, Toto’s marketing team has me reading an article every other day about why MV needs to go to Merc!! This is getting out of hand.. so
No-one is forcing you to read anything. You can ignore these articles whenever you wish.
I don't think 2026 can be compared to 2014. The changes will certainly be consequent, but not as huge as it was back then. Unless Wolff had some insider information allowing a headstart (again), it is going to be more complicated than it was in 2014.
Oh if toto did get inside info that would open big can of worms .and if did and the info was wrong that be even more funny with it .but toto dose not have anything do with the engin department thats amg with it and toto seem love say things and it come back bite him hard with it
AMG have nothing to do with the engines, next you'll be saying Illmor build the engines. Going back to the introduction of the hybrid engines, did you know that every team/engine manufacturer had a say in those designs, in fact Renault pushed the hardest for a V6 hybrid. Did you also know that Mercedes and Renault have a commercial partnership outside of F1, it may also surprise you to know that Mercedes helped Renault with certain elements of their engine they were struggling to understand namely turbulent jet ignition, they did that even though Redbull were a fierce rival, it's funny how you choose to ignore all of that in your usual Iill nformed Mercedes bashing
No idea why you mention AMG. But in fact, it is Mercedes AMG HPP which engineers and builds the engines. And how was it called before that? Ilmor Engineering. Therefore, AMG has something to do with the engines.
And here we go with the conspiracies. So if Merc are the care to beat in 2026, it MUST be because of a headstart that was nefariously gained? Well you've got almost two seasons to keep planting those seeds, just in case. :)
Not gonna help if Merc can not sort out the aero and suspension and how everything works with the powerplants.
Aero will be less of a factor in 2026. Thus the bouncing may be less so and therefore the suspension less critical. We will see.
Unless we go back to the cars we raced in the 50's,aero and suspension will still be hugely important.
Of course it will, I didn't state otherwise. I was saying that the impact of it would be less than it is now. To what degree, we will see, but from what I've been hearing, the 2026 will depend less on aero and therefore maybe try to make up for it with mechanical grip. And because of that the height of the rear of the car might be less critical regarding the bouncing and thus the suspension would be less of a concern in that it won't be so tricky to set up. Like it was pre 2022. Not sure why you mentioned the 1950's but ok.
Yes I feel the same. More mechanical grip. More driver dependant cars. Designers always find a way to claw back any time lost. It's where F1 excels.
I mentioned the 60's,because that was a good era for mechanical grip. I really want to see the scales move a lot more to mechanical grip,really hope that is what they will do. But I still think it will be at a level where the designers will claw back whatever the regulations is trying to reduce.
The Verstappen baiting is getting a bit too much now... Calm down Toto. Or they just want to sell power units and keep getting rich from it. But they better do something about McLaren until then ?
I'm rooting for Mercedes. A strong Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren would be nice. The biggest winner with a powerful Mercedes engine will be McLaren. Lando can then really take the fight to max.
Toto shouting that his pu going be like 2014 well toto dont have anything do with the engin side of things .and if the new regs are 50 % engin and battery and areo as well toto talking bs.he dose not know what ferrari engin going be like or rbr .so if the pu going be like 2014 why has one his driver leaving the team ? But with toto he always say things and then when come to racing he gets slaped in face with it .look what he said last few years and look wear they are
Well said RB, well said. Mercedes customer teams will certainly benefit from a strong Mercedes PU. Like you rightly point out, thats a large part of grid, which I actually didn't consider .
In the hybrid era, they arranged everything in secret and did not brag about what they had, that's why the transfer of Lewis was a big surprise. If it were the same situation now, I believe it would be the same with Max. This praise seems to me to be the exact opposite, a point blank shot.
What do you mean by 'arranged everything in secret' ? :) So much word salad. Can you back this up? How does Max fit in to this? What would 'be the same with Max'?? I think also you misused the 'point blank' term. Did you mean shooting blanks?
Back then Ross was in charge who knew that you open your mouth after you're successful, not before. Unfortunately he was driven out of the team by politicians Niki and Toto.
Every team discussed and agreed on the rules well before they were implemented, every team had the same opportunity to come up with an engine, to use a line from Christian Horner's book of gloating 'the other teams need to do a better job'
"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak." - Sun Tzu In the hybrid era, no one knew they were strong, they kept quiet and did everything in secret, and now it's the other way around. It doesn't have to mean anything, but it seems to me that they talk too much.
This is the first time I've heard Toto mention their 26 engine where as Horner, Max and Marko have already raised their concerns about running out of power , hey maybe your right when you say appear weak when you are strong, after all it's what they did in Imola
Redbull has ominous message for rivals: "Chassis/Bodywork feeling is similar to 2022/23"?
But they didn't though. And if they did, that's too bad considering how less dependant aero will be in 2026 - and yes I noticed you swerved around using the word 'aero' for that reason.
Less dependent doesn't mean not dependent. Hypothetically, if it is currently 70% of your performance and in 2026 it becomes 69%, it will be less dependent yes, but still dependent
Erm... do you think you're telling me something I don't already know? What a strange post. The only thing here is that the aero dependency for 2026 will be significantly less than 1%. To the point where engine power delivery may be the focal point. Also did you know that if you are travelling at 150mph and you tell someone you then slowed down, you might have slowed to 149mph. :)
It seems you need to have things explained to you in greater detail in order for you to better understand. I don't spew out, I write calmly. If you prefer Twitter sized posts, there's a place called Twitter (or X if you prefer). A shame that once again I see someone else who cannot acknowledge points in my post - or is unwilling to. I guess it's only a waste of time when you're not winning an argument.
If you got my point, you wouldn't need to spew out a few paragraphs. Let's move on before we waste any more of each others time
Erm, you can't apologise for me not getting your point. You can't apologise on my behalf. You can only apologise for not being clear in what you meant. I fully understood the post you wrote and what the words meant. If you think you should have expressed it differently, then that's on you, not me. I don't need to be told about the importance of aero and power in F1. This is basic 101 fundamental stuff that a newbie would realise after 1-2 races. But that does not get away from the fact that 2026 will be less dependant than now and 2025. Red Bull's advantage has always been more towards aero. Now they have the power too and the results show what they should be showing for that scenario. If Red Bull, since 2022, didn't have Newey's aero on it, it wouldn't be winning like it has done no matter who was driving it. Ground effects is Newey's domain more than anyone else in F1. But that won't play such a major role come 2026. Of course aero will still be a factor, I'm not stating otherwise, only that it will be less so. Apologies if you didn't understand what I've been saying.
The point I am trying to get to is that aero will always be important in F1, and so is power. Apologies if you did not get the point from my previous post.
If only talking won you races....maybe they should shut it for a while its embarrassing now
It's not embarrassing in the slightest. Toto is simply stating how he sees the development going. You wouldn't have a problem for any other team talking about their engines like this. Maybe you should shut it for a while and switch of your embarrassing anti-Mercedes/Lewis posts. But then what would you post? You'd be lost.
And yet again, just as I said to Racing Bull, you RB trolls are incapable of forming any meaningful discussion. You're here simply to act the fool.
Yeah I expect it would as you seem to like following me around. I guess if you dote on me so much, it would mean a lot that someone like me would even spend a second on you. You two are birds of a feather. Meaningful discussion is not to be expected from either of you. And every post you make to me continues to prove it.
Thanks for mentioning me. It means a lot coming from you my biggest fan.
How many pieces can Toto’s publicists write about why MV should go to Merc? It’s tiring!
Good. Then they should do more. It's bothering Red Bull so it's working and therefore a good thing.
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