F1 legend Martin Brundle reveals genius Mercedes strategy to mess with McLaren

George Russell, Oscar Piastri, Mercedes, McLaren, Bahrain, 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

Martin Brundle reveals genius Mercedes F1 strategy to mess with McLaren

McLaren are a Mercedes customer team

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Thursday 5 February 2026 09:57 Updated: 10:41

Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle has revealed the strategy he thinks Mercedes should use to mess with McLaren in 2026.

Mercedes supplies power units to four teams on the F1 grid, including themselves, Alpine, McLaren and Williams.

However, Mercedes' customer team McLaren have won the constructors' title the past two years, while the Brackley-based outfit have had to content themselves with seven wins in the ground effect era.

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Now, at the dawn of the 2026 regulations, Mercedes are tipped to be the team out in front, especially in regards to their power unit, where they have also seemingly discovered a loophole in regulations regarding their compression ratio.

Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle recently raised the topic of the Mercedes power unit, and how they could use the regulations to mess with McLaren.

"Can you imagine when Toto goes into a board meeting at Mercedes HQ, and they mention that McLaren, their customer team, has won the last two world championships,” he said on Sky during the Barcelona shakedown.

"In 2025, they absolutely dominated it with nearly twice as many points as the next runner.

"I don’t think Toto enjoys that a whole lot. He’s a supremely competitive man, and he’ll be looking to put one over on McLaren.

"Now, the regulations control how they can’t just be the works team and then give the customer teams a substandard product. It’s very tightly controlled in that respect.

"They’ve had advanced knowledge of pretty much everything on that power unit, as it’s been developed and used in the simulator for months and months now. I’m sure they only tell McLaren what they have to tell them as late as they can get away with."

"I would if I was them," he added.

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What are the FIA's power unit rules?

To back up Brundle's point above, F1's power unit regulations state in Appendix 4 1.4 that: “each power unit manufacturer must submit one homologation dossier which applies to all competitors it intends to supply. Only the fuel specification, the engine oil specification and power unit wirings may differ between competitors.”

It goes on to specify that 'all power units supplied by a single power unit manufacturer must also be operated in the same way'. They must therefore be 'identical according to the dossier for each competitor'.

They must also 'run with identical software for PU control' and be 'capable of being operated in precisely the same way.'

Mercedes however, still have the advantage of designing their power unit and chassis together, while McLaren have to incorporate their layout and design into their machinery.

Brundle then added: "Mercedes will be desperate to beat McLaren this year, and McLaren, of course, vice versa. So, that could get pretty feisty.”

"But then, if Mercedes can’t win with their car, they’d rather it be another team with their power unit."

F1 Mercedes McLaren Toto Wolff Martin Brundle