The biggest difference maker in this season may not be a supremely talented driver or an all-powerful engine, let alone the spectacular rotating 鈥淢acarena鈥� wing.
This could be the year of the algorithm.
The was more evidence of how code that the drivers don’t fully understand is shaping 鈥� or distorting 鈥� the title fight.
Kimi Antonelli sped to his sixth win of the season and nearly doubled his lead, while his Mercedes teammate and title rival George Russell was left stuck in a gravel trap after colliding with Lewis Hamilton.
In an angry radio message to Mercedes, Russell why he’d had an 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� loss of electrical power that dropped him back into a fight with Hamilton in the first place.
The big mystery
鈥淭he irony of the age; more knowledge than ever before in human history, yet even more mysteries,鈥� 1996 champion Damon Hill commented on X over a video of Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff blaming a software issue affecting all cars with Mercedes engines.
鈥淕ot to feel for (Russell). What does he have to do? All a bit weird how his car is different to Kimi鈥檚. They should be identical, performance wise. We will no doubt hear more of this anon,鈥� Hill also posted.
On Saturday, Russell had complained of driving with 鈥渙ne hand behind my back鈥� in qualifying after dropping straight-line speed to Antonelli for no clear reason. The team鈥檚 trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin called it 鈥渁 clear loss that we cannot explain by driving style.鈥�
Why the algorithms matter
F1’s for 2026 means the hardware that makes up the car 鈥� the turbocharged engine, the tires, even the battery 鈥� only tells half the story.
The rest often isn’t fully clear even to the drivers themselves. It’s a world of algorithms and deployment maps which can suddenly slow a car down for what can seem, to the driver in the cockpit, like no reason at all.
Except for the optional boost button for overtaking, most of the time, algorithms release the power in a way that isn鈥檛 directly related to the driver鈥檚 use of the gas pedal. So-called 鈥渄eployment maps鈥� set out how much energy to release based on where the car is on the track.
Without the battery, the car runs at barely half power on its engine alone, a feeling Max Verstappen likened to driving a Formula 3 car.
That’s how Russell fell back so sharply into the chasing pack containing Hamilton on Sunday, and seems to be why Antonelli briefly lost 鈥� then regained 鈥� the lead to Max Verstappen just before.
Uneven impact
Mercedes isn’t the only team affected by unexpected power use this season, just the one with the biggest impact on the title fight. Within teams, some drivers, like Russell, seem to be affected more than others.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri has become a prominent critic of how computerized decision-making is affecting the results.
His season began with a power-deployment puzzle when Piastri couldn’t even start his home race in Australia. On what should have been a routine, fairly gentle run to the grid, a sudden spike of power sent him spinning into the barriers.
For now, Russell just has to hope he gets on better with the boost at this week’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
鈥淜nocked down, we get back up. No matter how many times,鈥� he posted on social media Monday. 鈥淪o many tough moments this year but I will not stop fighting.鈥�
___
AP auto racing:
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
