Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says it is “too early” to call Kimi Antonelli the 2026 title favourite despite the Italian leaving the Hungarian Grand Prix with a 50-point lead in the drivers’ championship. Toto Wolff said: "It's too early to say. I'm superstitious, even though the gap is 50 points, there's so many races to go, a DNF for two can just swing massively. We've not been great on reliability, so we just have to continue to maximise every single day from the Friday onwards to the Sunday and then hopefully at the end that will be enough."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella says Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have become even closer as team-mates despite fighting each other for last season’s world title until the final race. Stella said: "It wasn't a given that, after last year -- when they found themselves battling for the world title right up to the final race -- the harmony they'd built would remain intact: yet not only has this not changed, but the relationship between them and with the team has actually become even stronger."





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