RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesFor now, Mercedes has no plans to give Kimi Antonelli preferential treatment to help secure his first Formula 1 world championship, despite what happened in the 2025 title battle between the two McLaren drivers and Max Verstappen. The team confirmed that winning the constructors' championship remains its primary target.
For most of the 2025 campaign, McLaren had the fastest car, and the constructors' title was already wrapped up by the Singapore Grand Prix. However, the drivers' title nearly slipped through the team's grasp.
The Woking-based team did not favour either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri, and in the end, Verstappen nearly 'stole' the world title, finishing just two points behind the Briton in the standings.
In 2026, Mercedes finds itself in a similar situation. At the moment, Antonelli leads the drivers' standings, but George Russell is not out of contention either. Lewis Hamilton is currently sitting in second place, and it is possible that the Mercedes drivers could take so many points off each other that, ultimately, the Ferrari driver could take advantage and win the biggest prize.
'If a Mercedes can win, a Mercedes must win'
Nevertheless, Mercedes refuses to throw its full support behind Antonelli. “The simple principle is, if Mercedes can win the race, Mercedes must win the race. That comes first,” deputy team principal Bradley Lord said in response to GPblog's question while speaking to a select group of media.
"The team comes first and the Constructors' Championship is the team's primary focus and primary objective. We've seen the fight swing all the way out to the point where, I think, it was being written that there was only one possible winner of the championship, and then, in the space of three races, we've seen that swing completely the other way as well. So it's far too early to even be thinking like that."
Lord then indicated that Mercedes wants to be the best in every single area. "We want to win both championships, absolutely, and we'll give ourselves the best chance of doing that by getting two cars to the finish as often as possible in the highest possible positions we can, which is what we've failed to do at every single race so far this year. So that's the focus, keep the cars reliable and fast and enable the drivers to give it their best shot for winning the Drivers' Championship."
At the same time, Mercedes will stick to its core principle: “If a Mercedes can win, a Mercedes must win and we don't mind which of the two cars it is. We'll do what we need to do in order to ensure that the best of those cars can do that on any given Sunday. That's the priority for us,” Lord concluded.
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