(Motorsport-Total.com) – The 2026 Formula 1 season start is already one of the most successful in Mercedes’ history. For the third time in its history, the Brackley-based team was able to win the first five Grand Prix races of a new year.
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Previously, Mercedes had already achieved this in 2014 and 2019. In the first year of the new hybrid era, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg together won the first six races of the season, and five years later Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas even secured eight consecutive wins.
However, the Silver Arrows do not hold the absolute record. In our photo series, we show which two teams in Formula 1 history had an even better start to the season than the Silver Arrows.
Before 2026, it happened a total of seven times in the top class that a team won the first five races of a season. Unsurprisingly, the respective team won both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships at the end of the year in all seven cases.
Formula 1 teams with at least five wins at the start of the season
Statistically, Mercedes can no longer be denied the championship this year – even though team principal Toto Wolff remains consciously cautious. “The difference to 2014 is that the performance differences in the engines were enormous,” he explains to Sport Bild.
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“Maybe we are currently ahead, but the recent races have shown that Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren are competitive. We got off to the best start and were able to consistently run laps while others had to stay in the garage due to problems,” he emphasizes.
Wolff therefore makes it clear: “The gap is not as big as the championship standings might suggest.” Mercedes has collected a total of 219 points in the first five race weekends of the 2026 season. Ferrari in P2 is already 72 points behind.
The drivers’ championship is currently led by Kimi Antonelli with 131 points, after he contributed four of the five Mercedes wins this year. Charles Leclerc, as the best non-Mercedes driver in third place, already has a 56-point deficit – which translates to more than two race wins.
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