F1 in the Netherlands: The driver you most want to beat is your teammate

Ironically, there might be a danger of something similar happening again. After never really getting a handle on the ground effect regulations (2022–2025), Mercedes put a lot of effort into starting the 2026 rule set as it did in 2014, with the most powerful hybrid power units and a chassis that could exploit them. And it did, winning the first six races in a row. But the car has been plagued with unreliability, most of it affecting George Russell and not Kimi Antonelli (who now, like Button in 2009, has a commanding lead over everyone else in the driver’s championship). And unlike in 2014, Mercedes can’t just throw money at the problem. F1 teams now operate under a strict cost cap of $215 million (plus a little extra if they’re permitted an engine upgrade as was announced in Monaco), and this weekend Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told journalists, “We haven’t got the money to put developments on the car. I said before that we are trying to evenly split that through the season based on our calculations of when we can bring the biggest updates and optimizing the championship points. But we just can’t do what we can’t do.”