2025 F1 season: Mercedes announces big W16 upgrade in push to catch McLaren. Mercedes is also not standing by and announces its first major update package of the 2025 season.

So far, the 2025 Formula 1 season has started below expectations. If many, based on what was seen last year, were expecting one of the most competitive championships in recent years, the reality is quite different: McLaren is dominating. But the others cannot just sit and watch. After Ferrari, Mercedes has now also announced a major update package for the W16; here are the words of technical director James Allison.

No one expected such a performance from the Stuttgart-based team with the three-pointed star. After a 2024 as the fourth-best team, with only a few flashes on some weekends, this year seemed to be following the same trend. And yet, what the team has shown in these first four Grands Prix is exceptional: second place in the Constructors’ Championship, about 20 points ahead of Red Bull.

A lot of this is surely thanks to the speed of George Russell. The British driver is proving himself a worthy team leader. Three podiums in four races: third place in Australia and China, second place in Bahrain, holding off Norris’s McLaren, which was clearly faster. Good results also for Kimi Antonelli, who understandably is still struggling a bit with inexperience in the category.

But Mercedes isn’t satisfied—they want more. They want to catch McLaren and return to standing on the top step of the podium. So, James Allison, in an interview with Motorsport, announced the first major updates of the season for the W16. “We brought a few new things last weekend in Bahrain. Nothing major, nothing visible to the naked eye. We just wanted to see how they performed on track.”

“At the moment, we’ve planned our first major updates for mid-May, possibly debuting at the Imola weekend. Of course, after that, we’ll assess the situation a bit because we also need to start investing in 2026. We’re trying to push everything into this first quarter of the year, and then maybe add a little more afterward.”

“Fortunately,” James Allison concluded, “even without changing the car’s geometry, you can gain quite a bit just by working on the car’s setup.” – he concluded.