Mercedes boss Toto Wolff gives first verdict of ‘spectacular’ F1 2026 cars

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff gave an overwhelmingly positive review of the new regulations and suggested the cars “look like Formula 1 cars again.”

It is a little over a month before all 11 teams will take their shiny new creations to the first race in Melbourne and at Mercedes’ official launch, Wolff gave his review of the regulation changes that come into effect this season.

Toto Wolff gives glowing review of F1 2026 rules.

Given the changes were first announced in 2024, the 2026 season has felt a long time coming with many teams switching focus early given how substantial and wide-ranging the alterations were.

Pre-season gossip has put Mercedes top of the pecking order and during the team’s official launch on Monday, Wolff was asked for his best and worst parts of the new regulations, although failed to find any of the latter.

“I don’t see any worse points,” Wolff, who is the longest serving active team principal, said. “I’m not overselling here or trying to make a product better than it is.

“But I think the cars are awesome. They look spectacular. They look like Formula 1 cars again. They’re not too small, they’re not too big. They’re not like the whales of the past. The aesthetics are very good.

“I like the engine concept in terms of the boost. George [Russell] went past [Franco] Colapinto [in the Barcelona shakedown] whilst Colapinto was doing his long runs, I think it was like 60 kilometres straight line speed difference and that is super exciting.”

Wolff believed all of the elements in the new regulations meant there would be “much more overtaking” after the relatively barren years of late.

“We are going to see much more overtaking,” the 54-year-old said. “We’re going to see it in areas that we wouldn’t expect it.

“Apart from the fact of the quickest cars, the best drivers, it’s also gonna have this additional dimension of intelligent driving and tactics that are going to be easy to understand, in my opinion, for Formula 1.

More on Mercedes from PlanetF1.com

* Toto Wolff tells F1 rivals ‘get your s*** together’ over PU loophole
* George Russell eyes head-to-head title fight with Max Verstappen in 2026
* Mercedes W17 ‘worked brilliantly’ as Shovlin casts Barcelona verdict

“So, so far, I haven’t really seen any negatives and again, I wouldn’t bulls**t or oversell anything that I don’t believe. For me so far, it’s ticked all the boxes.”

As for who is going to win the title, Wolff said the team with the “most clever guys” in the car and on the pit wall will be victorious.

“I think the pre-investment in tools and in simulations and doing the correlation work will be beneficial,” he said. “But in the same way, the learning curve will be steep. Once we see what the others do, we will better understand.

“It was quite interesting to see on the Ferrari and on the Red Bull the way they were managing energy in Barcelona. It was different to us. It wasn’t better, but it was just different.

“So I think learning from seeing the others, the challenges in the races where we realise ‘hold on a minute. We’re on Sunday, we haven’t mapped it in the way you’re winning races.’

“Maybe we’ve mapped it for a quick lap, and then suddenly you fall back. So the most clever guys in the car and on the engineering side are going to win.”

Read next: George Russell warns ‘standout’ Aston Martin could be a threat in 2026