Wolff ends rumours about favouring Antonelli: “They’re brainless, whoever thinks that”
Written by Bo Helmus
Championship leader Mercedes is soaring towards the constructor’s title, or isn’t it? All competitors are bringing updates and getting closer, yet the team from Brackley is unable to find time.
Mercedes’ mechanics fitted new upgrades in Baku, but rather than the cars disappearing on the horizon, the other teams were faster. George Russell is back to his old setup in Singapore, but Mercedes will still try to make the upgrades work with championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
Complication with the upgrades
Toto Wolff explains why: “The complication is that we've brought a big upgrade to Baku, and Baku is so tricky and a little bit of an outlier in terms of the temperatures that we've seen on Friday and Saturday, and with the tarmac being broken, or the tarmac being quite open, that we kind of didn't know whether the upgrade wasn't working as we thought or whether it was influenced indeed by the track conditions.
“And that's why we decided to go to Singapore, have two different specs of cars and see what it’s going to do, well knowing that Singapore is an outlier of a track too. So, we've done that exercise in FP1. There is a pattern, but most importantly is to really dissect what's working and what's not on the old and the new spec and then finding a way forward, picking the best bits and seeing where the development direction needs to get us in order to extract the optimum lap time.
“Now, having said that, obviously running two different cars is not always ideal, but it's a compromise we just need to take. So, we have two test pilots at the moment. We need to take it in order to assure that we're doing the right thing for next year as well.”
Car gets trickier to drive
Mercedes’ team principal mentioned that there is a pattern that they have recognized with the upgrades amongst the tracks that they’ve been using. The German says: “Yeah, there is a similar pattern, that the new car seems to be a little more tricky to drive.
“Not saying it's necessarily slower, because there will be goodness in it, but maybe we haven't just found a way of putting it all together and tuning it. The older car is a bit more stable, grippy, but that is really just one data point. That is one free practice session, and it will be needing more time to really come to more conclusive information.”
Behind the scenes, Mercedes is already working on next year’s contender, so the team is desperate to make these upgrades work. Wolff explains: “I mean, we've put a few months of upgrades into the car, clearly pointing in a direction that we think is advantageous, and maybe we just need to calibrate it a little bit in order to find the right way forward for 2027.”
Team orders
With one driver well on his way to become world champion, the other driver might feel left out. Mercedes tries not to pick favourites, but also wants to help Antonelli become the youngest world champion in the history of Formula One. Some people criticise the way the team is handling things, saying they have favoured Antonelli from the start.
“They’re brainless, whoever thinks that,” Wolff said, defending the team's choices. “I mean, it's completely nonsensical. We've had it in the past with Lewis fans. I mean, literally, I don't know what's going on.
“Do they think I have a button that says, ‘George [Russell] engine failure now’, or disadvantaging one driver against the other when we are fighting for a Constructors' Championship, when we have always had the mindset of providing everybody equal material?
“But I guess this is maybe where social media goes today. People hide behind their screens and then they lash out. There's a lot of polarisation going on, and sometimes I read what people write. I find it hilarious. These people really contribute to my own entertainment when they are abusing the team or myself. I'm Satan, I've heard. So, yeah, overall funny.”
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