Coming into the weekend, Ferrari were initially expected to struggle at Silverstone given the energy-starved nature of the iconic British GP circuit - the Scuderia have noticeably lagged behind competitors on the straights, and since Silverstone lacks obvious opportunities to regain electrical energy, a difficult weekend was anticipated.

Those concerns were quickly quelled, however, after Lewis Hamilton secured Sprint Pole to round out Friday's action - the seven-time world champion lost P1 to Kimi Antonelli the following day, but Ferrari another strong performance in Qualifying, with Leclerc and Hamilton P2 and P3, respectively.

At race start, Leclerc impressively got the jump on Mercedes' teenage sensation - going on to take advantage of the Italian's damage to his wheel shield, and a Lap 48 crash for Max Verstappen, to secure his first win of the 2026 season.

Russell's P2 represented damage limitation for Mercedes, who continue to struggle with reliability concerns in comparison with Ferrari - noted by Lewis Hamilton as potentially a key advantage for the Scuderia as they try to close the gap on the Silver Arrows.

Wolff maintained, however, he would much rather be in Mercedes' position despite the two DNFs already suffered at Montreal and Barcelona, but he was wary of Ferrari's recent uptick in performance - the Italian squad have won two of the last three Grands Prix, with Hamilton securing his maiden Ferrari win in Barcelona two rounds prior.

When asked whether he was surprised by Ferrari's performance at Silverstone, Wolff told media, including GPblog: "Well, we need to look at ourselves.

Ferrari team principal, and close friend of Wolff, Fred Vasseur has nonetheless tempered expectations surrounding a Ferrari title fight. Despite Ferrari securing their first double podium with Leclerc and Hamilton, Vasseur is adamant he is focusing on a race-by-race basis.

He told media, including GPblog: "After Barcelona, that we had the comment, ah, Ferrari is back in the championship. I said no. The week after, you told me, ah, Ferrari is nowhere. I said no, that we were on the first floor. That I will have exactly the same approach with everybody at home tomorrow morning, but even if I won't be in the office tomorrow, but to say, guys, that we did a good weekend, now let's be focused on Spa.

Vasseur later added his belief that Mercedes are still "five times ahead" of the Scuderia, saying: “Yeah, but let’s be focused on Belgium. Let’s do a good race. I think Mercedes, honestly, they still have an advantage. If you have a look on the six to seven sessions that we did this weekend, they are probably five times ahead. But it means that we had a good race."