Mercedes F1 chief admits team will be 'shameless plagiarists' with 2026 car

Mercedes F1 chief James Allison has admitted the team could plagiarise their rivals' designs in 2026.

Allison has been Mercedes' technical director since 2017, with a brief interlude as chief technical officer at Mercedes-AMG, and was on hand to discuss the W17 and 2026 regulations at the team's launch.

When asked how interested they are in the solutions other teams have developed, Allison admitted to looking at rival designs to see 'what they have found' that Mercedes may have 'missed'.

He also said that they 'take as many photos as they can', and: "If we see something that is tricky to understand, we will put people on it until they do. If we see something that we think, oh crikey, we should have thought of that, then we'll start working on that as fast as we can.

"Just overall, we are completely shameless plagiarists and the reason we're shameless is that we know all of our competitors are exactly the same. It's part of the sport."

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Are Mercedes the F1 team to beat in 2026?

While it was Lewis Hamilton who set an unofficial fastest time of the Barcelona shakedown (a 1:16.348), it was Mercedes who impressed the most.

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli completed the most mileage in their W17, putting in over 500 laps during the first week of testing.

Alongside their engine loophole concerning the compression ratio, the hole in the diffuser of their W17 has also attracted attention, with rivals Ferrari and Red Bull also opting for this design choice.

When does the 2026 F1 season start?

The 2026 F1 season starts on Friday, March 6 at the Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, with FP1 getting underway at 12:30pm local time (AEDT).

F1's first qualifying session of the year will take place on Saturday, 7 March at 4pm local time, and the first race of the season is on Sunday, 8 March with lights out at 3pm local time.

Prior to the Australian Grand Prix, two three-days tests will occur in Bahrain. The first will take place from Wednesday, February 11 until Friday, February 13.

The second set of Bahrain tests will take place on Wednesday, February 18 until Friday, February 20.

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