Ferrari emerges as a title contender as concerns about Mercedes' reliability intensify.

      Toto Wolff has acknowledged that Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton are now serious contenders for the championship as reliability issues continue to rise at the leading Mercedes team. Although George Russell was happy to recover 18 points against championship leader Kimi Antonelli in Barcelona, this result came only after the young Italian retired due to another power unit issue. This failure adds to the troubling pattern for Mercedes and its customer teams, despite the brand's dominance in the 2026 season.

      "We’ve had a few failures recently, which is a significant concern for us," Russell stated. Antonelli is also worried after missing another chance to expand his lead, which has now decreased to 50 points over Russell. Hamilton stands 9 points ahead of Russell in second place.

      "It’s a bit concerning because we’ve encountered several problems this season," Antonelli, 19, said. "Our package is really good; we just need to improve it because we lose many points in these types of races." The retirement was particularly costly, as Hamilton secured his first victory with Ferrari, building on the momentum from the team’s significant upgrade in Barcelona.

      "The Ferrari car is very reliable," Antonelli cautioned. "If they keep performing like this, they will definitely be a threat." Wolff concurs with this assessment. "They are undoubtedly title rivals," he remarked. "Lewis is clearly in a good rhythm and in a strong mental state, something I’ve admired for 12 years."

      The Austrian also believes Mercedes may have missed the opportunity to compete with Hamilton in Montreal by choosing not to give team orders between Russell and Antonelli before the latter's retirement. "Today would have been the right time to do it because we were competing with Ferrari," Wolff noted. "I think we lost the race today because we didn’t want to implement a team order. This is an issue we need to address, and we’ll discuss with the drivers how to handle these situations in the future."

      More fundamentally, Wolff is troubled by the repeated technical failures. "Clearly, there is a problem with the power unit," he admitted. "It can't happen that you experience alternating retirements with the same car while fighting for a world championship. I’m not satisfied with anything today."

      Meanwhile, Ferrari is working on additional upgrades. According to Auto Motor und Sport, with the ADUO concessions, the team in Maranello is continuing to develop their next power unit specification, focusing on further increasing the intake temperatures. Ferrari engineers believe that the first engine upgrade could significantly reduce the current horsepower gap to the leading benchmark, which they identify as Mercedes rather than Red Bull-Ford, despite the FIA’s controversial ADUO ranking.