Despite its lead in the championships, Mercedes sees Ferrari gradually catching up. For Jamie Chadwick, the Scuderia now prevents the German team from pulling away.
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Mercedes remains firmly at the top of both championships at mid-season, but the momentum of recent weeks has changed. After winning the first six Grands Prix of the year, the Brackley team has seen its advantage shrink against an increasingly competitive Ferrari.
In the last five rounds, the Scuderia has won twice, while McLaren has also found its way back to victory. This development confirms that Mercedes no longer has the margin seen at the start of the season.
For Jamie Chadwick, Ferrari has today become the main obstacle to Mercedes’ ambitions for a double world title.
Ferrari prevents Mercedes from pulling away
The German team is aiming this season for its first drivers-constructors double since 2020. Kimi Antonelli currently leads the drivers’ championship, while Mercedes also maintains a comfortable lead in the constructors’.
But Chadwick believes Ferrari remains close enough to prevent its rival from comfortably managing its advantage.
“Ferrari is the thorn in Mercedes’ side, the one that prevents them from truly pulling away,” says the British driver.
The Scuderia has notably adopted a particularly aggressive development strategy since the start of the season. Unlike some teams that concentrate their upgrades in large packages, Ferrari has regularly introduced new parts to gradually reduce its gap.
This approach is starting to pay off, with an SF-26 now able to compete more regularly with the W17.
Reliability complicates Mercedes’ task
Mercedes also has to deal with a problem that has already cost valuable points this season: reliability.
Several technical issues have affected George Russell and Kimi Antonelli during the first half of the championship. For Chadwick, these difficulties force the German team to split its efforts between performance development and securing its car.
“Mercedes’ reliability is holding them back. This means they have to focus on this aspect instead of working solely on pure performance.”
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The British driver also believes Mercedes must succeed in offering a car that is equally effective for both its drivers while ensuring a sufficient level of reliability.
“They need to figure out how to make both cars comparable in terms of performance, but also sufficiently reliable.”
A situation that could offer Ferrari new opportunities in the upcoming races.
Ferrari has chosen a different path
The introduction of the new technical regulations in 2026 has opened a wide development race. Teams still have significant room to improve their cars and the balance of power can change quickly.
Ferrari has notably stood out by making some technical choices different from those made by its rivals.
“With everything they’ve done, Ferrari stands out a bit due to the direction taken in its development, and this allows them to stay in Mercedes’ wake.”
For Chadwick, the Scuderia still needs to cross one last threshold before becoming a constant threat for both championships.
The engine could become decisive
The power unit represents one of the main areas of progress still identified at Ferrari.
If the Scuderia manages to improve its performance in this area while continuing to develop its chassis, Chadwick believes it could become much more dangerous in the second half of the season.
“They still need to get a bit closer. And if they also manage to master the engine upgrades when they arrive later in the year, it will be very interesting to see how far they can progress.”
Mercedes therefore retains the advantage, but the situation is far from settled. Between Ferrari’s continuous progress, McLaren’s recent return, and its own reliability issues, the German team could be forced to defend its top two positions much more hardly during the second half of the championship.
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