Mercedes experienced both triumph and disappointment in Canada.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli claimed victory in Montreal, while George Russell was forced to retire from the race, losing valuable points in what is increasingly becoming an internal championship battle between the two Mercedes drivers.
The Canadian Grand Prix has always been a unique challenge, but this year the difficulties were amplified by the characteristics of the new generation of Formula 1 cars. Cold temperatures affected tire operating windows, while the revised energy management systems and the new Overtake mode significantly altered the dynamics of racing and overtaking.
Mercedes engineers Bradley Lord, Andrew Shovlin and Evan Short discussed the fascinating duel between the two Silver Arrows drivers during the team’s official Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast, offering an inside look at the factors that shaped one of the most exciting battles of the season.
The battle between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell
In Canada, Mercedes once again demonstrated the level of competitiveness that had appeared less obvious during the previous event in Miami. Both drivers started the weekend strongly, using the practice sessions to understand and optimize the substantial upgrade package introduced by the Brackley-based team in Montreal.
The Sprint race then delivered a spectacular wheel-to-wheel battle between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. The British driver eventually came out on top to secure victory, while the Italian youngster had to settle for third place after an intense fight.
“These new regulations make it quite difficult to break away because the car behind can recover a little more energy,” explained Andrew Shovlin. “At Montreal, because it was really cold and there are a lot of low-speed corners, the cars followed each other very well. You could stay within a second, and sometimes even within half a second of the car ahead without any problems.
“The two cars became a little locked together in a battle. The extra energy helps the driver behind maintain the pace, and it is difficult for the car in front to pull away. The big problem is that when you make defensive moves and fight like that, you lose lap time because the drivers are no longer taking the optimal line through the corners. That penalized us a little.
“It’s difficult because we would prefer to drive away into the distance, while the drivers want to race each other. Sometimes we have different priorities. That’s another conversation to have because we don’t really care who wins if it’s a Mercedes one-two, but what we do not want is to hand strong positions to the cars behind simply because we are fighting too hard among ourselves.”
Bradley Lord echoed Shovlin’s comments while reflecting on the battle that saw Andrea Kimi Antonelli run wide while attempting to retake the position from his teammate.
“The duel started without a comfortable margin over the cars behind, and the pace differences on Saturday were not that significant. That meant when Kimi went off track trying to pass George back, Lando Norris moved into P2 and we lost a point that we could otherwise have scored.”
According to Lord, the lessons learned in the Sprint race proved useful for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
“It was good to learn that lesson in a Sprint race, so that in the main race, although there were some position changes, the real battle only began once we had a six- or seven-second gap over the rest of the field rather than a much smaller margin.
“Another unique aspect of Montreal is that the main overtaking opportunities are located at the end of the lap rather than the beginning. That means that under these new regulations, once you have just been overtaken, the car behind can activate Overtake mode. They stay with you and then make their move at the end of the lap as well.
“If the major overtaking zone was at the beginning of the lap, there would at least be a chance to maintain the benefit of the extra energy gained through the pass and create a gap for the remainder of the lap.”
The role of tires in the duel
One of the key reasons why the battle between Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell lasted so long was the remarkable durability of the tires in the cool Montreal conditions.
On hotter circuits, tire grip tends to deteriorate more rapidly, forcing drivers to manage their pace and conserve the rubber. In Canada, however, the tires remained remarkably consistent and allowed the drivers to push hard for extended periods.
“That allowed the battle to last much longer,” Lord explained. “We went into the race expecting a two-stop strategy. Logically, around lap 20 the cars should have made a pit stop, but even the Soft compound was holding up very well.
“We could have gone even longer than we ultimately did with Kimi, but then the Virtual Safety Car provided the perfect opportunity to switch from the Soft to the Medium tire. That lack of degradation was a positive factor because it allowed the battle to continue for such a long time.”
How Overtake mode influenced racing in Montreal
One of the major innovations introduced with the current generation of Formula 1 cars is the new Overtake mode. In Canada, however, the system was not especially powerful in terms of outright lap-time gain.
Its greatest benefit came from the way it influenced energy deployment and top-speed performance.
“You only gained around one tenth, maybe one and a half tenths,” Shovlin explained. “But what it does is give the driver access to more energy because they can recover more.
“There is also an effect where the car using Overtake mode can eventually run faster because it enters a region of the engine mapping where power begins to taper off at a certain speed, while the car behind has a higher threshold. As a result, the following car ultimately has a higher top speed.
“In Montreal it was mainly about making one big move using a lot of energy along one of the long straights, and that allowed drivers to complete overtakes.”
However, the cold conditions added another complication. Tires reached their lowest temperatures at the end of the straights, precisely where drivers needed maximum grip for heavy braking and overtaking attempts.
Lord pointed to another factor that contributed to the excitement of the race.
“One of the other things that opened up the racing was that both drivers were absolutely on the limit during the opening stints. We repeatedly saw front-wheel lock-ups at Turn 10, with one driver or the other ending up on the painted surface outside the white lines.
“That created opportunities for the other driver. It is another characteristic of these cars. It is very easy to lock the front brakes. We saw it with many cars throughout the field. When the wing closes and you lose aerodynamic load in braking zones, avoiding lock-ups becomes a real challenge.”
Predicting overtaking remains difficult
Although the Mercedes W17 appears competitive across a broad variety of circuits, predicting where Overtake mode will have the biggest impact remains surprisingly difficult for the team.
“What is interesting is that we are not actually very good at predicting in advance which circuits will be difficult for overtaking and which ones will be easier,” Shovlin admitted.
“The drivers often give us their opinion, but calculating it is proving quite complicated. You need to keep an open mind about which tracks will provide good overtaking opportunities and which ones will produce more of a train of cars.”
The comments offer a fascinating glimpse into the complexity of Formula 1’s new regulations. While Mercedes celebrated Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s victory in Canada, the weekend also highlighted how factors such as energy recovery, tire behavior, track layout, temperatures and Overtake mode can combine to shape both strategy and racing in ways that remain difficult to predict even for the teams themselves.
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