Mercedes are Formula 1 champions again, and Toto Wolff is in no mood to let anyone remember the four years in between as a failure.
The team clinched the 2026 constructors’ championship at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on Sunday, November 8, their first since 2021 and the ninth in the team’s history. The title arrived with three races still to run, and it drew Mercedes level with Williams on nine constructors’ crowns, behind only Ferrari and McLaren.
That is the context in which Wolff used his moment to push back on how the previous four seasons are being framed.
“It wasn’t that we were complete losers over those four years,” Wolff told reporters after the race at Interlagos. “We won races, won many races.”
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A difficult road, by Wolff’s own admission
Wolff did not pretend the period had been easy. He described to Pit Debrief a cycle of getting the car wrong, then thinking he understood the problem, only to realise the diagnosis was wrong too.
He put the recovery down to the people inside the Brackley factory as much as any technical breakthrough, pointing to the resilience of the staff who held together in the tough times.
‘Not many teams have done that’
Wolff tried to place the achievement in a bigger frame, noting that few sports teams have come back from a long run of titles followed by a difficult spell.
Mercedes’ return is partly the story of a regulation reset. The 2026 season launched a new ruleset with revised aerodynamics and power units, and the team entered the year as favourites, winning the first six races and converting that start into a title fight they never relinquished.
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Antonelli crowned a week earlier
The drivers’ half of the double was in the bag before the paddock reached Brazil. Kimi Antonelli clinched the 2026 drivers’ title at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday, November 1, finishing third to seal the championship at 20 years and 68 days old, making him the youngest champion in Formula 1 history.
Antonelli is the first Italian to win the F1 title since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
The paddock now heads to Las Vegas, where practice begins on Thursday, November 19 and the race is on Saturday, November 21.
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