Last Updated on March 13 2026, 8:45 pm
As TJ13 reported following round one of the 2026 Formula One season in Australia that engine customers of Mercedes were unhappy that their supplier had failed to give them crucial information on the operation of the all new power units.
Back in 2014, the F1 engine suppliers we’re not obliged to give their customers the latest version of the engines under the regulations. They claimed any upgrade must be run by the works team to ensure the upgraded product was reliable and delivered the functionality they expected.
This led to a number of customer’s complaining their engine supplier had a baked in advantage and eventually the FIA mandated all customers must run the same hardware and software that the power unit manufacturers were supplying to their own works teams.
Williams boss “shocked” by Mercedes engine
Yet in Melbourne, the massive pace advantage Mercedes had over their customers Williams, McLaren and Alpine raised suspicions that a new form of ‘dirty tactics’ was being employed by Mercedes HPP based in Brixworth. George Russell claimed pole position at the Australian GP a massive 0.9 seconds ahead of the next best Mercedes powered car, driven by Oscar Piastri.
Williams team boss James Vowels, himself an ex-Mercedes F1 team lifer, said he was “shocked” and “caught off guard” by the efficiency of the deployment of the Mercedes power unit used by Williams. This led to speculation in some quarters that during testing inn Bahrain, the Mercedes HPP engine customers had not received the final product which was being run by the works team.
The regulations covering equal equipment for works teams and customer teams do not cover pre-season testing. Adding to this speculation, McLaren team boss Andreas Stella revealed he had unanswered questions he had posed to Mercedes HPP about the new engines stretching back “weeks.”
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McLaren team principal accuses Mercedes of witholding information
Speaking openly in the paddock, Stella said: “The discussion with HPP (Mercedes High Performance Powertrains) about having more information has been going on for weeks because, even in testing, we were pretty much going on track, run the car, look at the data, ‘oh, that’s what we have. Good, now we react to what we have’.
“That’s not how you work in Formula 1. In Formula 1, what happens on track, you simulate. You know what is happening, you know what you are programming, you know how the car is going to behave,” stated the McLaren boss.
The Italian went on to accuse Mercedes as behaving differently this year when compared to the information flows McLaren have received from HPP in Brixworth since becoming an engine customer back in 2018.
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Sainz & Norris join the c alls for Mercedes’ transparency
Driver’s of Mercedes HPP customer teams have now joined the call for more transparency from Brixworth. When asked on the media day in Shanghai about Williams understanding of their Mercedes engine, driver Carlos Sainz was blunt. “They’re much further ahead,” said the Williams driver. “In Australia they didn’t have more power, but more deployment. How did they do that? It’s theirs, and they know how to extract it.”
Current F1 world champion Lando Norris was candid stating there were things about how to use the Mercedes power unit that he and his team had just not been told. “It’s just early on in the season, there are a lot of things to try to figure out and understand, and it’s just that it’s not [been] told,” he said.
“Certain things don’t need to be told, because you always try to create your own advantages. But at the same time, there are certain things we’re having to figure out for ourselves,” implying these matters should have been disclosed to McLaren. “I don’t know what the rules are and what has to be said and what not, that’s down to Andrea and the rest of the team,” Norris concluded with a shrug of his shoulders.
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FIA sporting regulations make clear Mercedes’ obligations
Of course McLaren and Williams as customers of Mercedes have to be careful in what they say publicly, which is why the drivers and team principals have spoken in somewhat of a coded fashion. They don’t wish to be the ‘unlucky’ team which has more reliability issues than the rest of the Mercedes engine users, but the regulations are clear about what Mercedes HPP must do.
Appendix 4.5 of the sporting regulations contains the mandatory information any engine manufacturer must supply their customers with. This was clarified in 2018 when the FIA issued a technical directive, due to suspicions the rules were being ignored due to a technicality.
Here is what Technical Directive TD/005-18 states: “The purpose of [point] five of Appendix four to the F1 Sporting Regulations* is to ensure that all power units supplied by one manufacturer are identical in all respects, we have good reason to believe that this may not be the case. Whilst the dossiers for each team may be identical it would appear that some are being operated in a different way to others being supplied by the same manufacturer, this renders the purpose of [point] five almost meaningless.
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F1’s governing body needs to investigate
“It is therefore our view that all power units supplied by one manufacturer should be identical, not only in terms of the dossier for each team being the same, but we also feel they should be operated in an identical way. With this in mind, we will expect all power units supplied by the same manufacturer to be:
“i) Identical according to the dossier for each team and, unless a team informs us that they have declined any of the following, they should be:
ii) Run with identical software and must be capable of being operated in precisely the same way.”
Given neither McLaren nor Williams believe they understand exactly how to best run their all new 2026 power units, it would appear Mercedes HPP are in breach of ii) in the above technical directive. “Being capable” means understanding how it works. Further, given Andrea’s Stella’s claim that his requests for information over several weeks have been unanswered, Mercedes appear to be blatantly seeking to gain an advantage, something the FIA must investigate.
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Following just the third competitive on track session of the 2026 Formula One season, fans are understandably dismayed by the dominance of the Mercedes AMG F1 team. Mercedes were 1-2 in qualifying in Australia and finished the Grand Prix in the same order ahead of the two Ferrari’s.
A week later in China, little has changed despite the protestations of George Russell and Toto Wolff that the gap between Mercedes and the rest of the field is not as large as it seems. Friday afternoon at the Shanghai International circuit saw the first Sprint qualifying of the year and one again it was the silver arrows who locked out the front row for Saturday mornings short form race.
George Russell was over 6/10ths quicker than the nearest non-Mercedes car Lando Norris who will start the Sprint in third place. The gap was slightly less than last week in Melbourne, where George was close to 8/10ths to Red Bull’s sack Hadjar….. CONTINUE READING
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13 and a career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media. Having trained in investigative journalism and contributed to several European sports outlets, Hunt brings rigour and polish to every article. His role is to sharpen analysis, check facts and ensure TJ13’s daily output meets the highest editorial standards.
It seems to me that the FIA must investigate NOW – NOT Race 6 weekend – and ALL points awarded to the Mercedes team up to the point of full disclosure to customers should be declared NULL AND VOID.
Come on – get this done NOW. Maybe even simply disqualify Mercedes until that happens!