Mercedes Returns to Glory: Wolff Celebrates 2,500 Superstars After Championship Win

In the drizzle and chaos of Interlagos, Mercedes finally got what it had been chasing for four long, bruising years. No driver on the podium. No champagne-drenched 1-2. But the number that mattered most flashed up all the same: Constructors’ Champions, 2026.

Title number nine. Five years after their last. A return that felt a world away during the dark early days of Formula 1’s ground-effect era.

From dominance to doubt

Regulation changes in 2022 ripped up the script that Mercedes had written so ruthlessly for almost a decade. The team that once made winning look inevitable suddenly found itself lost in porpoising data, confused concepts and a car that refused to obey its designers.

They had ruled F1 with eight consecutive constructors’ titles. Then came the reset. Red Bull surged. Ferrari and McLaren circled. Mercedes, for the first time in years, looked ordinary.

Toto Wolff never dressed it up.

“I think those last four years were very difficult between getting it wrong, then kind of understanding why it was wrong and then realising no we didn't understand,” he admitted. “That was a bit back and forth.”

Those seasons still brought victories – seven Grands Prix shared between George Russell and Lewis Hamilton from 2022 to 2025 – and solid finishes in the standings: second, second, third, fourth. On paper, respectable. Inside the team, it felt like failure.

“So it wasn't that we were complete losers over those four years,” Wolff said. “We won races, won many races. So it wasn't that bad at all when you look at the sheer numbers, but it felt not good.”

The reset of 2026

The new 2026 regulations offered a second chance. Mercedes grabbed it.

They didn’t just survive the latest rule revolution; they set the pace. The car that rolled out of Brackley and Brixworth this year became, on average, the benchmark of the field. The team locked up the Constructors’ Championship in São Paulo and had already sealed the Drivers’ crown earlier in the month with Kimi Antonelli.

For Wolff, the satisfaction runs deeper than another trophy.

“The thing is when you are in these difficult moments, like we all are sometimes in our lives, it's not that easy to keep going,” he reflected. “Looking back in retrospect, you're saying, 'we needed these tough moments in order to grow as people or to grow as an organisation'. But when you're down, that is quite difficult to feel.”

The resilience he talks about isn’t a slogan on a factory wall. It’s the engineers who stayed late trying to understand a bouncing car in 2022. The mechanics who endured Sundays knowing the podium was a stretch, not a certainty. The leadership that resisted tearing the whole structure down when the easy narrative was that the dynasty had died.

“The resilience of the team, the people that held together in those tough times, is a factor, I think,” Wolff said. “It feels really good sealing those two titles.”

A rare kind of comeback

This is not just another championship on the Mercedes CV. This is a second act.

“Not many sports teams have done that after consecutive run of championships, then a difficult spell and then coming back,” Wolff pointed out. “So I'm really proud that we are part of this very small group of teams that have done that in all sports.”

With this ninth constructors’ crown, Mercedes move level with Williams. Only McLaren (10) and Ferrari (16) sit above them in Formula 1 history. The company they keep says plenty. The manner in which they’ve rejoined that conversation might say even more.

“2,500 superstars”

Wolff has always been quick to turn the spotlight away from the pit wall and the drivers. On Sunday, he did it again.

“Sometimes the drivers, or myself, we are so visible because we are in front of the TV cameras, but there's so many people that are part of this,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“I always say there are not two superstars, the drivers, but there are 2,500 superstars, all of them delivering a great job, being all of us contributing to such a championship.”

Those 2,500 people are spread across Brackley and Brixworth. Designers, aerodynamicists, engine specialists, strategists, logisticians. The ones who never climb onto the podium but shape the car that gets there.

This year, their work produced the best all-round package on the grid. The title is their vindication.

A messy race, a perfect outcome

The São Paulo Grand Prix itself was no coronation drive. Lando Norris dominated in mixed conditions, underlining McLaren’s threat. Both Mercedes drivers spun. The race film will not make the season review highlight reel.

Russell gathered it up to finish fourth, just ahead of Antonelli. It was enough.

“We achieved what we came here to do and won the Constructors' Championship,” Russell said. “We would have liked to have done it in a bit more style, but it's an incredible achievement for everyone in the team.”

For the Briton, who joined Mercedes at the start of their troubled 2022 campaign, the journey has been personal as well as professional.

“We've had four difficult years and the whole organisation put so much work into getting us back into this position. When I joined Mercedes in 2022, we hoped we'd be fighting for championships regularly, so to have gone through that journey and now get back to the top is something we should all be incredibly proud of.”

Antonelli, the newly crowned Drivers’ Champion, echoed that sentiment with the clear-eyed gratitude of a young champion who knows the machine behind him.

“They have done an incredible year and it's an amazing group of people, who push every day to do their best and give us the best opportunity to fight for wins and championships,” the Italian said. “This year they have done an incredible job and that's why they deserve this championship and we will enjoy it together.”

A giant restored – and hungry

So Mercedes stand again where they believe they belong: at the top of Formula 1, constructors’ trophy secured, a new champion in Antonelli, and a car that has set the standard in the first year of yet another regulatory era.

The statistics will record this as title number nine, their first since 2021. The story behind it is harsher and more human: a fallen heavyweight, wounded pride, years of doubt, and a methodical climb back to the summit.

They have rejoined Ferrari and McLaren in the sport’s pantheon of serial winners. The question now is not whether Mercedes are back.

It’s how long they intend to stay.