Mercedes End of Year Report: Silver Arrows hit their mark
- Maham Mir
- 7 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Written by Maham Mir, Edited by Meghana Sree
With another year of Formula One action in the books, our writers review each F1 team’s 2025 campaign and assess their performance across the season. Mercedes finished runners up to McLaren in the 2025 World Constructors’ Championship, but it’s title success they’re aiming for in 2026. Here’s their end of year report.
For a team used to consecutive championship success, 2025 would perhaps be seen as another year to forget for Mercedes. Yet, given their performance during the ground-effect era, finishing P2 was perhaps the highest they could have hoped to achieve in the final year of these regulations.
The first season without Lewis Hamilton at the helm of the team had a lot of people wondering whether they would be able to continue to enjoy the success of years gone by. 2025 brought the arrival of rookie Kimi Antonelli while George Russell stepped up to be the team’s leader, both of which can certainly be lauded as successes now that the dust has settled in Abu Dhabi.
With Russell’s two wins and Antonelli’s impressive three podium finishes, Mercedes proved themselves as consistent contenders in the post-Hamilton era and the final year of the ground-effects. Collecting 469 points, 18 more than third placed Red Bull, Mercedes finished 2025 with their second largest haul of points in the last four years.
Drivers’ Head-to-Head Performance
As to be expected between a driver with Russell’s experience compared to Antonelli’s rookie status, the teammates’ head-to-head heavily favours Russell. However, this is not to say that Antonelli’s ability to put in dominant performances should come under doubt as weekends like Miami prove otherwise.
In terms of qualifying, Russell out-qualified Antonelli in the Grand Prix format 21-3. Russell took both pole positions recorded for Mercedes in 2025 in Canada and Singapore respectively.
Like in the Grand Prix format, qualifying for sprints saw Russell ahead again, this time 4-2. However, sprint qualifying is where Antonelli gave Mercedes their only sprint pole for the season in Miami and their only sprint front-row start as well in São Paulo.
In both Grand Prix and sprint races, Russell was clearly ahead. For Grand Prix racing, Russell led with 21-3 and in sprints, Russell led 5-1.
Overall, Russell claimed 319 points and P4 in the World Drivers’ Championship standings compared to Antonelli’s 150 points and P7.
Best Moments
There can be no doubt that as one of only four race winners in 2025, Russell’s two victories in Canada and Singapore are a highlight of the season for the team.
The first of his two victories in 2025, Montreal, was an opportunity to right a previous wrong. After qualifying on pole in Canada, a repeat of his performance a year prior in 2024, Russell led his teammate for a 1-3 finish with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finishing as runner-up.
Grand Prix success followed Russell again in Singapore where he took a lights-to-flag victory ahead of Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris. Leading every lap of the race in conditions that Mercedes were not expecting to flourish in, Russell himself acknowledged that he had made up for “a missed opportunity” in Singapore especially after his unfortunate last-lap crash in 2023.
For the other side of the garage, Antonelli’s impeccable rookie season saw him achieve three podiums in Canada, São Paulo and Las Vegas as well as a sprint pole in Miami. In particular, his drive in Las Vegas which saw him start in P17 and finish P3 as well as his record-breaking sprint pole showcase his calibre as a driver.
In Miami, at only 18 years old, Antonelli became the youngest ever polesitter in any format. Speaking after his sprint pole, which also set a new lap record at the International Miami Autodrome, Antonelli commented: “I’m feeling over the moon. I did not expect it, but I was feeling good in the car.”
Towards the latter stages of the season in Las Vegas, Antonelli put together perhaps one of his greatest races of the season. Despite being knocked out in Q1 and his five second time penalty for a false start, Antonelli’s incredible drive left him in the perfect position to capitalise when both McLarens were later disqualified.
Worst Moments
Despite their highs, it was not a season of smoothing sailing for the Silver Arrows as their package struggled during the European triple header of Imola, Monaco and Spain. For both garages, it was three race weekends to forget as they scored a combined total of only 18 points.
With the European triple header starting in Imola, Antonelli’s first chance to truly shine came at his first home race. Unfortunately the fairytale never materialised as the young Italian driver qualified P13 and then was forced to retire due to a mechanical issue.
During Antonelli’s mid-season slump which saw a string of less than ideal results and some rookie mistakes, his Team Principal Toto Wolff offered public support and stated: “Kimi, 18 years old, thrown in this mammoth of a team, representing Mercedes, he’s going to make mistakes. Hopefully less mistakes next year and scoring bigger points. But my 100% belief is in him in the long term, and that is just part of the learning.”
However, the lowest point of the season for both of the Silver Arrows came around the streets of the principality of Monaco, the only race weekend of 2025 where they failed to score a single point. Both drivers struggled with the mandatory two pit-stop rule which was implemented for the first time.
After a disappointing qualifying which saw both drivers knocked out in Q2 and be the cause of the two red flags in the session, Russell lined up 14th and Antonelli 15th for Sunday’s Grand Prix. During the race, Antonelli’s incident with Gabriel Bortoleto and Russell’s drive-through penalty hampered any potential progress they could have hoped to make.
Looking Ahead
The ground-effect is not one that Mercedes will be sad to see the back end of, with this generation of cars not bringing the same success as the turbo-hybrid era.
With their new driver pairing settling into their positions and rumours abound about the expected dominance of their engine, all eyes will be on the Silver Arrows to see if they can return to their former championship ways.
