George Russell and Kimi Antonelli have both reserved judgement on Mercedes’ major new W17 upgrade package after the team endured its most difficult qualifying session of the season at Sepang. Antonelli qualified fourth and Russell eighth, although both will gain one position on the grid because of Isack Hadjar’s penalty.
Mercedes did not appear to have the pace required to challenge Max Verstappen for pole position, while the unusual Sepang surface made it particularly difficult to determine whether the team’s new aerodynamic package delivered the expected improvement. Both drivers believe more representative circuits and additional race weekends will be needed before a firm conclusion can be reached.
Kimi Antonelli admits mistake compromised Sepang qualifying
Kimi Antonelli had shown strong pace during FP3, making Mercedes’ drop in competitiveness during qualifying particularly frustrating.
“We were strong in FP3, so it’s a shame that our competitiveness dropped in qualifying,” Kimi Antonelli explained.
Sepang itself represented a major part of the challenge. The abrasive asphalt and extremely high temperatures made it difficult to keep the car and tyres operating consistently throughout the session.
“This circuit is unique, with a very aggressive asphalt surface and incredibly high temperatures. That makes it difficult to maintain the same performance consistently. Tonight we’ll go through everything to understand what we could have done differently and identify exactly where we made mistakes.”
One of those mistakes came during Antonelli’s first Q2 attempt, when a track-limits infringement forced him to use another fresh set of Soft tyres earlier than planned. That left him with only one new set available for Q3.
“I put myself under a lot of pressure with only one set of new Soft tyres in Q3, but I did what I could,” Kimi Antonelli said.
Antonelli believes Mercedes could have challenged for front row
Although Antonelli accepted that his mistake affected the final phase of qualifying, the Italian did not believe Mercedes had enough performance to challenge Max Verstappen for pole position.
“If we had had a second set, I think we could have fought for the front row. But I don’t think we could have challenged Max for pole position. It looked like he had the fastest car all weekend and that was the case again today.”
With the grid penalty ahead promoting the Mercedes driver one place, Antonelli will start third.
“All things considered, third position isn’t a bad place to start,” Kimi Antonelli said.
Attention now turns to race pace and tyre management, with degradation expected to be particularly severe at Sepang.
“Tyre degradation will probably be very high. Most likely it will be a multi-stop race. Hopefully that will open up some opportunities for us if we have good race pace.”
“There’s still a possibility of rain as well, which could make things even more exciting, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Kimi Antonelli says Mercedes upgrade remains difficult to judge
The championship leader also addressed Mercedes’ new upgrade package, which has yet to produce the clear improvement the team had hoped to see at Sepang.
Mercedes arrived in Malaysia with a significant development package for the W17, continuing its efforts to unlock more performance after Toto Wolff had previously acknowledged that the team remained behind schedule with some of its development work.
“We still need to properly understand how this package works because I think today, and generally throughout this weekend, we were slightly outside the window with the balance,” Kimi Antonelli explained.
“We need to understand better how it works, and I also think this track doesn’t help. With such a worn surface and this heat, it isn’t easy to understand exactly which window you need to operate the package in.”
Mercedes therefore expects to need several more races before reaching a definitive conclusion about the effectiveness of the development package.
George Russell says Sepang surface hurt Mercedes more than rivals
George Russell was asked whether Sepang represented his most difficult weekend of the season so far, but the British driver rejected that suggestion.
“No, not really,” George Russell replied.
Instead, he highlighted how unusual Sepang has been because of its highly abrasive surface.
“Obviously, this circuit is a bit of an exception in terms of asphalt abrasiveness. Lap times seven years ago were about six or seven seconds faster, and in some parts of the circuit it feels like you’re driving on gravel, which is the same for everyone.”
“However, it’s clear that it’s affecting us more than some of the others.”
George Russell explains why Mercedes cannot judge upgrade from one weekend
Like Kimi Antonelli, George Russell believes the difficult conditions make it impossible to draw a reliable conclusion about the new parts.
“That’s the big question mark. If we could have done a direct back-to-back comparison, it would have been great to know,” George Russell said.
The Mercedes driver argued that results alone can easily create a misleading impression of whether an upgrade has worked.
“If we had fitted the upgrade package last week, even if it had actually been worse, we probably still would have taken pole position. And we would have said it was fantastic.”
“Equally, if we had run the old car here, perhaps the result would have been even worse. That’s the challenge.”
Mercedes had not previously experienced a genuinely poor race weekend during the season, making the Sepang result stand out even more clearly.
“As a team, we haven’t had a bad race all season, and this was clearly a very poor qualifying session for us.”
Mercedes upgrade numbers match expectations but lap times do not
There has also been considerable discussion around the expected performance gain from the new package. George Russell acknowledged that Mercedes’ internal figures appear to show what the engineers anticipated, but stressed that simulation and aerodynamic numbers cannot outweigh actual lap time.
“Obviously, in a sport like this, we have to follow the lap times and not the numbers,” George Russell said.
“The numbers look absolutely fine and in line with expectations. However, the result wasn’t.”
That leaves Mercedes with an important evaluation process ahead. The W17 had previously established itself as an extremely competitive package, but the Sepang conditions have made it difficult to determine whether the latest changes represent another step forward or whether the car simply struggled to operate in the correct window.
High Sepang tyre degradation could reopen the race
Despite the disappointment of qualifying, George Russell believes the Bahrain Grand Prix itself could offer Mercedes another opportunity because of the expected tyre behaviour.
“Tyre degradation is enormous and race pace will be crucial,” George Russell said. “So even though today was a real disappointment, it isn’t everything.”
Both Mercedes drivers will therefore enter the race with questions still surrounding the new package, but also with the possibility that Sepang’s severe tyre degradation, multiple-stop strategies and potential weather changes could make qualifying position less decisive than usual.
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