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Antonelli six, Russell four, Norris two. Ferrari and Red Bull have not taken a single pole in 2026, and the qualifying data explains why.
Mercedes have taken the fastest qualifying lap at ten of the first twelve rounds of 2026. Ferrari and Red Bull have taken none.
That is not an impression from watching the races. We pulled the fastest legal qualifying lap from every 2026 round run so far and counted who set it.
| Round |
|---|
| Circuit |
|---|
| Pole |
|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | Russell |
| 2 | Shanghai | Antonelli |
| 3 | Suzuka | Antonelli |
| 4 | Miami | Antonelli |
| 5 | Montreal | Russell |
| 6 | Monaco | Antonelli |
| 7 | Barcelona | Russell |
| 8 | Spielberg | Russell |
| 9 | Silverstone | Antonelli |
| 10 | Spa | Antonelli |
| 11 | Budapest | Norris |
| 12 | Zandvoort | Norris |
Antonelli six, Russell four, Norris two. Every other driver on the grid, and every other team, has zero.
The distribution is worth sitting with. Mercedes did not win a handful of poles at circuits that suited them. They took pole at Monaco and at Spa, which are the two most different circuits in Formula 1: the slowest, tightest lap on the calendar at 163.0 km/h, and the fastest at 238.8. A car that is quickest at both ends of that range is not benefiting from a track type.
The obvious explanation would be an engine advantage. The speed trap data does not support it.
The highest speed trap reading of 2026 belongs to Esteban Ocon at Barcelona, 358 km/h, in an Alpine. At Monza this weekend the top twelve through the trap were covered by just 9 km/h, with Carlos Sainz quickest for Williams. Mercedes were not top of that list.
We measured the same thing across the 2025 season: the fastest team through the speed trap and the slowest were separated by 3.75 km/h, while the same ten teams were separated by 1.623 seconds of lap time. Straight-line speed is where Formula 1 has converged. It is not where poles come from. The full breakdown is in F1 car top speed.
Friday at Monza gave a clean example of the mechanism.
We measured the minimum speed every fast driver carried through each corner on their best lap. Antonelli carried the highest apex speed of the seven quickest drivers through Lesmo 1 at 210 km/h, Ascari at 197 and the Parabolica at 214. Those are the three fastest corners on the circuit, and his Parabolica figure was 14 km/h higher than his own team mate's.
Mercedes also took the fastest first and second sectors in FP2, with Ferrari taking the third. In the part of the lap that is about cornering rather than power, Mercedes were ahead. The corner-by-corner numbers are in the Monza practice data analysis.
One honest caveat, because pole is not the same as a race win.
Our long-run measurements at Monza put Antonelli quickest on race pace too, at a 1:25.993 median on the hard tyre with essentially flat degradation over 16 laps. But qualifying pace and race pace are different problems, and the 2026 season has produced races that did not follow their grids. We measured the gap between the two in qualifying versus race pace.
A ten-from-twelve pole record is a statement about one lap on low fuel with a fresh set of tyres. It is the clearest single measure of raw car performance, and it is not a championship.
Because the racing has stayed close. We measured the spread from pole to the slowest car in qualifying at 5.54% of lap time in 2026, against 2.49% in 2025, so the field is actually further apart than last year, not closer. Mercedes are at the front of a grid that has spread out.
That is the unusual shape of this season: one team owning Saturday, a field that is wider than it has been in six years, and races that have still produced varied results. The convergence data is in how close is the F1 grid.
Qualifying is where this pattern shows up first, and it is decided in tenths.
The Formula Dream app runs a live Dashboard through every session: every car on the circuit map, and a timing tower with lap times, gaps and intervals, tyre compound and age, plus flag and safety car alerts as race control calls them. In qualifying the useful column is sector times, because that is where you see a car gaining in the corners rather than on the straights. You also get live driver radio as it is broadcast, and every FIA document of the weekend as it is published, which is where deleted laps appear before anyone reports them.
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Ten of the first twelve. Kimi Antonelli has six and George Russell four. Lando Norris has the other two, at Budapest and Zandvoort.
Not in the first twelve rounds. Every pole has gone to Mercedes or McLaren.
No. The highest speed trap reading of the season is 358 km/h by Esteban Ocon at Barcelona in an Alpine, and at Monza the top twelve through the trap were covered by 9 km/h. The Mercedes advantage is in the corners.
Kimi Antonelli, with six from the first twelve rounds.
From Formula 1's own timing data. We took the fastest legal qualifying lap at every 2026 round raced so far, excluding deleted laps, and recorded who set it.
Losing DRS was supposed to kill overtaking. Across nine dry circuits raced in both seasons, on-track position changes fell by 3.9%. That is all.
