Mercedes HPP boss outlines works team advantage theory for F1 2026
Mercedes' George Russell during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains boss Hywel Thomas suggested that there is a natural “advantage” to be had as a works team at the start of this new Formula 1 era.
Mercedes went into F1 2026 pre-season with the fancied engine to beat, while George Russell is the favourite to become Drivers’ Champion. As Thomas points out, the first race in Melbourne will give a first true indication, but he gave credit to the theory that being a works team, rather than a customer, is of benefit at this early stage in the new ruleset.
Hywel Thomas explains Mercedes works team edge under 2026 regulations
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The true pecking order is shrouded with uncertainty after Bahrain testing. But, it is widely accepted that McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull are still the top four. In what order, has been open to great debate. It is a debate that will be temporarily settled at the first race in Melbourne this weekend.
McLaren go into F1 2026 as the reigning double champions.
McLaren quashed the old stroryline of a customer team being unable to win titles. With the Mercedes engine, McLaren won the 2024 and 2025 Constructors’ crowns, while Lando Norris became World Champion in 2025 driving his Mercedes-powered McLaren.
However, the playing field has been completely reset for F1 2026, with new chassis and engine regulations coming into play. The new Mercedes engine will power its works team, plus McLaren, Williams, and Alpine.
An engine manufacturer must supply the same engine to every team which it powers. But, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told The Times that it is no “coincidence that all three are works teams,” as he looked at McLaren’s suspected F1 2026 rivals, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, which has entered its first ever engine in F1 2026.
The Red Bull-Ford power unit turned heads with its reliability in Bahrain, while Mercedes, and customer Williams, talked up its energy deployment capabilities.
“To use a football metaphor, the first part of the season will see us playing a bit defensively, trying to exploit the counterattack,” Stella added.
Can Mercedes truly find an edge over its engine customers early in these regulations, even when the rules insist that it cannot give a customer an inferior engine? Hywel Thomas, the managing director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, suggested how that can be so.
He told The Times: “As a works team, 45 minutes down the road [between HPP and the F1 factory], there are just more links. There’s more links between the engineering groups, there’s more links between the hierarchy of the organisations. You would naturally think that there’s a benefit and there’s more advantage.
“On most things, the chassis teams agree [with the power unit side], so it isn’t a big deal. But when there’s something where perhaps the works team will be going in one slight direction, and the customer says, ‘Oh, can’t we go in a different [design] direction?’ It will always be the works team that you follow.”
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Ferrari set the ultimate pace in Bahrain testing, and also impressed Stella with its long-run performance, as did Mercedes.
But, Stella was told that Alpine – a fellow Mercedes customer – hinted it had not yet had access to the full power of Mercedes’ new engine, so was expecting a step up in Melbourne.
Stella was asked where he stood on that.
“I don’t want to comment too much in terms of specification of hardware,” Stella responded to PlanetF1.com and others.
“I think that’s part of the strategy that HPP deployed in terms of supplying the hardware, the power units, to the customers and to the works team.
“It’s been certainly an intense and pushed program for power unit manufacturers, not only for the teams from a chassis point of view.
“What is important is that the right specification is available for race one.”
Sky F1’s Craig Slater has claimed that McLaren “are getting a slightly upgraded Mercedes power unit for the first race of the season.”
“We haven’t seen how good that is yet. If it does give a crucial edge, I could see them right up there as well.”
Alas, in Melbourne, it will become clear where each team is at in the early pecking order.
“The real first test is qualifying in Melbourne,” Thomas stated. “Until then, you’ve got little idea of fuel loads, who is sandbagging — that’s the first time everyone will turn up and give their best.
“It’s a relative game. We could have thought we’ve done a great job. If others have done a better job, it’s suddenly a crap job.
“The opposite; we feel we’ve done a dreadful job, just about made it, and everyone is in a slightly worse state, you can suddenly be the heroes.”
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