Toto Wolff - Photo: Race Pictures

Wolff singles out the best aspect of new F1 2026 regulations

11:00, 04 Feb

byOwen Bradley

Toto Wolff has spoken on the new technical regulations ahead of the 2026 season, which will see a dramatic shift for all the cars on the grid.

"The cars are awesome, they look spectacular. They look like Formula One cars again. They're not too small, not too big, they are not like the whales of the past."

- Toto Wolff

Now that the 2026 cars have taken to the track in Barcelona, we have had our first look at the latest generation of F1 cars actually out on track. In private testing in Barcelona, Mercedes often found themselves at the top of the unofficial timesheets each day, with both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli recording a significant amount of laps every day, especially when compared to their rivals.

The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has recently spoken about the new technical regulations and the overall differences between them and the previous generation, where the regulations ran from 2022-2025.

Photo: Race Pictures

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Wolff stated: "The cars are awesome, they look spectacular. They look like Formula One cars again. They're not too small, not too big, they are not like the whales of the past. The aesthetics are very good, I like the engine concept, in terms of the boost - George has passed Colapinto whilst Colapinto was doing his long runs, I think it was a 60km/h straight line speed difference"

He continued: "That is super exciting, where and when and how a driver is going to deploy it and optimise it, we are going to see much more overtaking, we're going to see it in areas that we wouldn't expect it. Apart from the fact that it's the quickest cars with the best drivers, it's also going to have this additional dimension of intelligent driving and tactics, that are going to be easy to understand in my opinion, for Formula One."

Under Wolff's direction, Mercedes dominated the Turbo-Hybrid era from 2014-2021, taking seven Drivers' world championships and eight consecutive Constructors' championships. However, the recent Ground Effect era from 2022-2025 did not bring the German manufacturer much success, securing just seven race wins.

Photo: Mercedes AMG F1 Team

Coming into 2026, Mercedes have been touted to be at the front of the field, and with an experienced Russell and fast Antonelli, the team may become a serious contender, depending on how competitive they are at the start of the season.

They will also be supplying power units to McLaren and Williams, and could find themselves breaking the record for the power unit supplier and manufacturer with the most race victories in F1 history.