Toto Wolff says "we need to look at ourselves", expects Ferrari challenge for rest of 2026 Formula 1 season

Wolff's words come after Ferrari won the 2026 British Grand Prix with Charles Leclerc despite Kimi Antonelli being on pole. Lewis Hamilton was on Sprint Pole that weekend but lost out to Antonelli in the Sprint.

No one expected Ferrari, including themselves, to be competitive at Silverstone given their power deficit compared to Mercedes, but an upgraded power unit introduced in Austria as well as a decent car setup, both to the chassis and the power unit, meant the Red cars were quite handy around the classic British track.

Mercedes, on the other hand, while having the best overall package in the form of the W17, have struggled with reliability, with Antonelli suffering a DNF in Barcelona with battery issues. He was out of the points in Silverstone due to a broken wheel shield.

Russell, who finished on the podium in the British Grand Prix, was lucky due to his teammate's troubles as well as benefiting from the Safety Car caused by Max Verstappen's crash. However, the Briton did break down from the lead in Canada.

Speaking to the media after the British Grand Prix last weekend, Wolff said: “We need to look at ourselves.

“They [Ferrari] said before the weekend that they're going to be lacking energy over this track—they haven't.

"They were a strong competitor, and this is to be expected now for the rest of the season," the Austrian concluded.

Ferrari have been inconsistent, and Team Principal Fred Vasseur has been keen to play down Ferrari's Title chances, insisting he is taking it one race at a time.

The Frenchman had also been at war with his Mercedes counterpart after the latter questioned Ferrari's car upgrade approach, with the Italian squads already throwing two major packages at their SF-26 while Mercedes have only had one considerable update while also bringing bits and pieces every race.

Discussing Mercedes' car upgrade strategy, Andrew Shovlin, the team's trackside engineering director, told the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show: "We're bringing performance to it [W17].

"We haven't done a massive kit like some of our competitors. But every week, we're trying to bring performance to just keep ourselves ahead at the moment.

"We're lucky that we've got a car that works across a whole range of tracks. Well, probably not lucky.

"I think we've done a good job at engineering a car that works across a full range of tracks," Shovlin concluded. (Wolff quotes by Agnes Carlier)