Wolff warns Ferrari will challenge Mercedes for the rest of F1 2026 after Silverstone

Toto Wolff has conceded that Ferrari will pose a sustained threat to Mercedes for the rest of the 2026 Formula 1 season, following Charles Leclerc’s victory at Silverstone last weekend. George Russell finished second to salvage a podium for the Silver Arrows, but the result extended a run in which Ferrari has won two of the last three grands prix.

Mercedes had appeared untouchable at the start of the new regulatory era, winning the opening six races of the season. The tide began to turn at Barcelona, where Ferrari arrived with a significant upgrade package and Lewis Hamilton took his maiden victory for the Scuderia. Although Mercedes responded with a win in Austria, Leclerc’s Silverstone triumph confirmed the Italian team’s resurgence is no flash in the pan.

“We need to look at ourselves,” Wolff said at Silverstone. “They said before the weekend that they’re going to be lacking energy over this track — they haven’t. They were a strong competitor and this is to be expected now for the rest of the season.”

Despite the momentum, Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur is refusing to entertain talk of a championship battle. His team sits 78 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ standings, and the Austrian Grand Prix served as a reminder of Ferrari’s inconsistency — Leclerc and Hamilton fell from second and third to eighth and fifth respectively after struggling for race pace.

The weekend at Silverstone also underlined what Ferrari is up against. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli, 19, took sprint pole and Sunday pole for Mercedes, and looked set to overhaul Leclerc for the race win before a broken wheel shield ended his challenge.

“Championship fight is your words,” Vasseur said when pressed on the title race. “After Barcelona, I had the comment, ‘Ah, Ferrari is back in the championship’. I said no. The week after, you told me, Ferrari is nowhere, I said no. We were on the first row.

“I never try to draw a conclusion after one race, two races, a good result, a bad result. I’m just focused to do more and to do better. Then it’s your job to speak about championship. But I never did it.”

Vasseur acknowledged that Mercedes still holds an overall performance advantage as the season heads to the Belgian Grand Prix on 17-19 July. For Wolff, however, the days of comfortable dominance appear to be over.