Mercedes may be sitting pretty with a perfect four wins from four Grands Prix, but don't let the scoreboard fool you—Miami exposed cracks that could widen into chasms as the season heats up.

While McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull rolled into Florida with major upgrades, Mercedes is playing the long game, saving its first big performance package for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. That's a calculated risk, but it's not the only issue keeping Toto Wolff up at night.

The real headache? Race starts. And they're becoming a pattern that's hard to ignore.

In the first three race weekends of 2026, championship leader Kimi Antonelli had already lost a staggering 18 positions on the opening lap alone. Miami didn't offer any relief—six more places vanished in the sprint race, and another two during the main event. For a team chasing both world titles, that's not just a hiccup; it's a red flag.

Team principal Toto Wolff didn't mince words when addressing the issue. "It's not at all on him," Wolff told Motorsport.com, defending his young driver. "I think today and yesterday was a team mistake. And it's just, we all know, it's just not good enough. We're not doing a good enough job in giving them a tool in their hands, whether it's the clutch or the grip estimates."

Speaking to Sky Sports Germany, Wolff went even further, calling the starts "not acceptable" for a team with championship ambitions. "We need to fix it—we've been watching this for far too long."

So far, Mercedes has been able to outpace the field despite these early-race setbacks. But Wolff knows that luxury won't last. As rivals close the gap with each upgrade package, those lost positions become harder to reclaim.

"And we are the only ones who, let's say, don't get that right now for a few races," Wolff admitted. "We just have to dig even deeper and to try to understand how we can fix that, because I agree with you that the gaps are not big enough to cruise into the sunset. And therefore you can't be missing starts."

The FIA isn't planning any further changes to help, so the solution has to come from within. For Mercedes, the message is clear: the speed is there, but if the starts don't improve, those four wins could start looking more like a warning than a victory lap.