After pre-season testing wrapped up in Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton picked up the phone to call his former Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff, to get a straight answer on how the team’s new car was shaping up.
Hamilton didn’t feel like the two three-day tests had offered much insight into where teams really stood heading into the 2026 F1 season. To get a better sense of things, he reached out to both Wolff and McLaren CEO Zak Brown for their thoughts.
Even before a car took to the track under the new regulations, Mercedes were already being tipped as favourites. And after testing, many in the paddock still felt they looked like they’d built the strongest package overall.
But Charles Leclerc and ex-driver Juan Pablo Montoya both suggested that Mercedes might not have shown everything their 2026 car can do during those sessions. There were also some reliability concerns that cropped up for them during the second test in Bahrain.
Lewis Hamilton called Toto Wolff trying to learn Mercedes’ actual performance level in 2026
McLaren is also expecting a boost when they get to Australia. The team from Woking will have Mercedes’ homologated power unit, after running an older spec engine during the tests in Bahrain. Only the Silver Arrows used what’s likely to be the final engine spec, mainly to check reliability.
The lap times didn’t give much away either. With variables like fuel loads and engine settings making direct comparisons tricky, Hamilton reached out to Wolff and Brown again, trying to gauge how Ferrari’s SF-26 stacks up against what Mercedes and McLaren have put together.
Hamilton told Corriere della Sera: “The tests revealed little. Everyone was hiding behind their fuel loads. I called Toto Wolff at Mercedes and Zak Brown at McLaren to try to understand what they understood, but I didn’t get any results.
“However, I have one certainty. After what we went through last year, we can handle any situation. This team has everything it takes to win.
“We have finished the job together with the fans.”
Lewis Hamilton risks repeating his early Ferrari misstep with fresh claim
There were suggestions during testing that Mercedes held back in Bahrain, keeping their true pace under wraps. Rivals are still questioning whether the team found a way around the new F1 engine compression ratio rules for 2026.
But as the Australian Grand Prix approaches, most believe Mercedes will be the team to beat, while Ferrari look set to start the year anywhere from second to fourth best. McLaren and Red Bull round out what should be a tight top four in the early going.
Hamilton has now echoed those comments again by saying Ferrari have “everything it takes” to win. When he first arrived at Maranello, he spoke about how they had “every ingredient” needed for a title run. That claim didn’t hold up last season.
It was suggested last year that some within Ferrari grew frustrated with Hamilton for highlighting issues during his debut season. He drew comparisons between their setup and what he’d experienced at Mercedes, though it’s still unclear if any of his recommendations were taken on board.
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