Kimi Antonelli’s latest victory at the Spanish Grand Prix was his eighth of an extraordinary 2026 Formula 1 season, while for Mercedes it represented a tenth win from the first 14 races. The Italian’s rise has naturally commanded enormous attention, but those numbers also raise another question: just how dominant is the Mercedes W17?
The excitement surrounding the young Italian phenomenon has perhaps taken some of the spotlight away from the car produced at Brackley. With 10 victories already this season, the W17 is increasingly positioning itself for inclusion among the most successful Formula 1 cars of the last 30 years, potentially even challenging for a place among the very best.
That does not diminish Kimi Antonelli’s achievements. His team-mate has endured a much more difficult season in the same machinery, underlining the difference a driver can still make. But it also serves as a reminder of the quality of Mercedes’ work and one of Formula 1’s most enduring realities: no driver can realistically fight for the World Championship without a car capable of doing so.
Kimi Antonelli’s eighth win underlines the strength of the Mercedes W17
Antonelli’s victory in Madrid further strengthened his position at the top of the championship and continued an extraordinary run of results. The Mercedes driver now has eight wins from 14 Grands Prix, while the team itself has won 10 of those races.
His latest success was also another demonstration of Mercedes’ ability to maximise opportunities. At Madring, the decisive Virtual Safety Car sequence and the team’s handling of the gap around Antonelli played a major part in the outcome, with the details of the two-second Mercedes tactic that helped secure the Madrid victory illustrating how performance and execution have combined throughout the season.
Antonelli has unquestionably been exceptional, but the W17 has provided him with the platform required to turn that level of driving into a championship-leading campaign.
Even Max Verstappen knows the best car matters in an F1 title fight
Max Verstappen knows that lesson particularly well. With the competitive but imperfect RB21 last season, the Dutchman recovered more than 100 points against Lando Norris but still failed to win the championship. This year, he has largely had to settle for the lower steps of the podium while extracting everything possible from the difficult RB22.
The contrast with 2023 could hardly be greater. That season, Red Bull’s RB19 won 21 of the 22 Grands Prix and established itself as one of the most dominant Formula 1 cars ever built.
That Red Bull belongs to an elite group of machinery whose overwhelming performance helped define not only championship seasons, but also the legacies of the drivers who raced them.
How the Mercedes W17 compares with Formula 1’s dominant cars
Behind the 2023 Red Bull in this comparison comes the Mercedes W07, credited with winning 19 of 21 races in its season. The level of dominance achieved during Mercedes’ first turbo-hybrid era remains the obvious benchmark for the team’s current generation.
Another legendary car in this discussion is the Ferrari F2002, recently seen back on track at Monza with Sebastian Vettel behind the wheel as part of the celebrations honouring Michael Schumacher. Schumacher secured his fifth Drivers’ Championship during that remarkable 2002 campaign, when Ferrari overwhelmed the opposition.
The W17 has not yet reached the roughly 90% victory rate associated with the most extreme examples of Formula 1 dominance. However, Mercedes has already won more than 70% of the first 14 races of 2026, leaving the current car within reach of historically significant territory if its success continues through the second half of the championship.
McLaren is emerging as the biggest threat to Mercedes
The championship is far from over, and Mercedes’ dominance has become less straightforward in recent races. McLaren has increasingly emerged as a serious challenger following the developments introduced in Hungary.
That is an important qualification when comparing the W17 with cars such as the RB19 or the greatest Mercedes machines of the previous turbo-hybrid era. Those cars achieved win rates around 90% or even higher, whereas the current Mercedes has won just over seven out of every 10 races so far.
Even so, the statistic remains impressive for several reasons. Mercedes has suffered costly retirements that potentially removed at least two more victories from its tally, while the W17 has also been one of the cars to receive relatively few major updates during a season in which virtually every development can produce a visible effect on lap time.
Mercedes still has more power-unit performance available
The power unit provides another intriguing element. Surprisingly, the internal combustion component is not considered the outright benchmark under the relevant development criteria, and Mercedes still has an ADUO-related upgrade available that has yet to be fully exploited.
That leaves the possibility of further performance being unlocked even though the overall Mercedes package is already setting the standard in 2026.
The significance extends beyond the works team because the quality of the Mercedes power unit also benefits its customers. As the season develops, that advantage could become increasingly important both for race victories and for the broader Constructors’ Championship battle.
Mercedes has rediscovered its title-winning formula
There is another statistic in favour of the Silver Arrows. Four of the 10 most successful Formula 1 cars in history are Mercedes machines from the pre-ground-effect regulatory era between 2014 and 2021.
During the four years that followed, however, Brackley failed to produce a genuine championship-winning car. That makes the W17 particularly significant.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that, with Formula 1 returning to cars whose overall philosophy has greater similarities with the first turbo-hybrid era, and with power-unit engineering once again playing such an important role, the technical group led by James Allison has created another machine capable of fighting for both World Championships.
The latest 2026 Formula 1 drivers’ standings underline the result of that combination: Antonelli leads the championship after eight victories, while Mercedes has placed itself in a commanding position through the strength of both its car and power unit.
Antonelli and the W17 can write history together
Kimi Antonelli therefore has the opportunity to place his name alongside some of Formula 1’s great champions. His performances, consistency and ability to capitalise when opportunities arise have already made his season exceptional.
But the history of Formula 1 repeatedly shows that dominant champions and dominant machinery often arrive together. Michael Schumacher had the great Ferraris of the early 2000s, Mercedes created a succession of extraordinary cars during the first turbo-hybrid era, and Max Verstappen enjoyed the unprecedented effectiveness of the RB19 in 2023.
Antonelli may now be writing his own chapter with the W17. The Italian has eight victories and is increasingly close to the World Championship, while Mercedes has 10 wins from 14 races and remains on course for a season that could place its latest creation among the most successful cars of the modern era.
Antonelli has the opportunity to write his name alongside the great drivers of the past, but he can only do so because Mercedes has also built a car with the potential to earn a place alongside the great machines of Formula 1 history.
