Wolff urged to halt Mercedes engine supply to title rival McLaren

After a decade spent struggling to stay afloat, the new era led by the Zak Brown-Andrea Stella duo began delivering its first results in 2023, with the team’s exponential rise confirmed in 2024 before ultimately securing its first Constructors’ Championship. Last season then proved to be one to remember for McLaren, as the Woking-based outfit wrapped up a remarkable campaign by claiming both titles.

This year, partly due to the arrival of the new regulations, the papaya team initially started the season on the back foot, running into several technical and performance-related issues compared to benchmark Mercedes. However, McLaren managed to turn things around within a matter of weeks, stringing together an excellent second-place finish with Oscar Piastri at Suzuka, followed by a highly competitive weekend at the latest round in Miami.

Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, Steiner admitted that, if he were in Toto Wolff’s position, he would seriously consider stopping Mercedes engine supplies to McLaren in order to avoid strengthening a direct rival. The former Haas team principal pointed out that manufacturers are only required by the regulations to supply a maximum of two customer teams, suggesting that Mercedes could simply continue working with Alpine and Williams instead.

Sky Sports pundit Karun Chandhok revealed that figures within both Mercedes and McLaren are not overly concerned about Ferrari’s title chances if the version of the team seen in Miami truly represents its current benchmark. Ferrari headed to Miami with a major upgrade package for the SF-26, introducing as many as 11 changes to the car, but the updates ultimately failed to produce the step forward the Scuderia had been hoping for on track.

According to Chandhok, Ferrari’s weekend in Miami ended up falling short of expectations, with the upgrades not delivering the kind of performance leap that many had anticipated. The former driver also explained that, from the perspective of rivals Mercedes and McLaren, Ferrari’s latest package did little to raise alarm bells, especially if no major developments are expected in the near future.

Chandhok also pointed out that Miami was widely viewed as the event where Ferrari were supposed to make a decisive move forward in the competitive order. Instead, while Mercedes are still preparing their own upgrade package for Canada, Ferrari appear to have lost ground not only to McLaren but also relative to Red Bull, prompting growing concern inside Maranello.