With the Hungarian Grand Prix now a thing of the past, Formula One has officially begun its summer break. Although the 2026 season has been disrupted after the cancellations of a few early races, it is now approximately halfway done. A lot has changed since the engines first revved in Australia. Who is on the path towards glory now, and are the early leaders still holding on to their advantage?
Mercedes started the 2026 season incredibly strong. George Russell won the inaugural Grand Prix, and the following five were dominated by his teammate, Kimi Antonelli. With such an impressive streak, many fans wondered whether the season would be a repeat of the one seen in 2023, only with Mercedes at the top instead of Red Bull. However, the more races were held, the more the other teams caught up.
Mercedes is still doing a great job; that much is not up for debate. Although both of their drivers hit rough patches along the way, they have also taken victories in the last few Grand Prix. What changed from the beginning of the 2026 season is that they are no longer the only ones on the top step of the podium. Lewis Hamilton won in Barcelona, Charles Leclerc triumphed in Silverstone and, most recently, Lando Norris conquered the Hungaroring.
Mercedes is still leading the Constructors’ Championship (WCC), 72 points ahead of Ferrari in second. Their situation in the Drivers’ Championship (WDC) is not as straightforward. While Antonelli has managed to retain his spot at the top of the standings throughout the 2026 season, the same could not be said about Russel, whose subpar performances pushed him behind both his teammate and Hamilton.
This leads into perhaps the most important question for the second half of the 2026 season: who is going to win the WDC? Due to Mercedes’ start, it was generally assumed that the fight for the title was bound to be between Antonelli and Russell. Now it is clear that there are other drivers worth considering in the conversation.
Antonelli is still first by a comfortable margin, sitting at 219 points, but, as I mentioned before, he is not followed by his teammate. Hamilton, having found his rhythm within Ferrari, has moved into second position, currently 50 points behind the leader. The gap between him and Russell in third is not big, but it still puts the seven-time World Champion in a good position to try and make his mark on the 2026 season.
Realistically, however, it is Antonelli’s title to lose. The second-year driver has shown some great talent in the first half of the 2026 season and has been very consistent in his performance. If he can keep moving in the same direction, then all the upgrades brought on by his competitors will not be enough to stop him from becoming Formula One’s youngest champion.
All these conversations are only possible due to the steady progress the other “top teams” have made throughout the 2026 season. Ferrari has been second since the very first race, but they have closed the gap to Mercedes as the weeks have passed. The team’s drivers believe that they are only going to perform better as the season evolves.
“We’ve been bringing upgrades weekend in, weekend out. We’ve got hopefully more to come in the second half and we just keep on pushing. I think the second half will be stronger” (Hamilton’s post-Hungary comment)
“It’s a championship again where upgrading is so much more significant than in the past, because it makes us do such a big step forward (…) So it’s going to be important that we stay on top of it, and that we keep being as aggressive as we’ve been with the development programme. (Leclerc’s post-Hungary comment)
Although Red Bull and McLaren have been a bit behind Ferrari throughout the 2026 season, they have also seen improvement as the season progressed. The former has been deemed to have Formula One’s best engine and, despite other issues, has been consistently close to the fight at the front in recent Grand Prix. The latter flew relatively under the radar, while at the same time collecting enough points to secure the third position in the Constructors’ standings. Their recent upgrades brought them the victory in Hungary, and Norris, the race winner, claimed that, while he can see the benefits of the work put into the car, there is still a lot of potential to be unlocked within it:
“We know from the past few years what it is like when you do understand the car and what happens when we can maximise the package. We don’t feel like we have gotten close to that potential yet, so we are excited to really try and understand it completely, which is when we’ll be able to maximise things.
The second half of the 2026 season could bring with it a lot more excitement than the first. Neither Championship is secured quite yet, and it seems like the upcoming races are set to shake things up even further. The Dutch Zandvoort will be the next chance for the drivers to show their best hands. Whether it will come together with Mercedes’ return to the top, or with someone else taking the lead, remains to be seen.
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