Martin Brundle reveals F1 quirk that could see Mercedes title bid fall apart

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Pre-Season Testing

Martin Brundle reveals F1 quirk that could see Mercedes title bid fall apart

Pre-season testing is now well underway

Chris Deeley

Saturday 31 January 2026 11:54

F1 legend Martin Brundle has noted a potential pitfall for Mercedes in 2026, after some tentative excitement about their early test running.

The Silver Arrows topped the timesheets by the end of Thursday's running thanks to a George Russell lap, with their new package seeming to be both reasonably speedy and helpfully reliable.

However, it's important to note that pace in a pre-season test, more than a month away from the first race of the season, is a long way from definitive. Especially since, as Brundle notes, the cold conditions this week are unlikely to be representative of those the cars will actually see on race weekends.

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With plenty of updates on the way across the grid (and plenty still to discover about the new power units), the Sky Sports legend pointed out that it's possible the team have created a setup which heats tyres up too well.

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Speaking on Sky, Brundle said: “Mercedes never really aced the ground effect car. They never got it right. Porpoising, then they had a car they didn’t really understand – it performed sometimes and not others and they didn’t know why.

“Clearly they look like they’ve completely aced this different set of regulations. We need to see what it’s like on normal track temperatures. It’s going to be about regen [filling the battery back up] but of course they will regain every bit as well as any other Mercedes-powered car, probably every Ferrari-powered car too.

“It does seem as if they’ve hit the sweet spot pretty early doors doesn’t it. Their concept looks good but it’s too early to say that [they will run away with the championship]. You might have a car that just fires its tyres up brilliantly on a cold day and then overheats them on a hot day. We’ve seen Mercedes have that problem before.

“I do think we need to stay calm, but you can’t ignore the relentless pace and reliability they’ve had, so clearly they’ve got a really good cohesive package.”

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