“Mercedes 2025 F1 car is exactly as we planned, now it’s a development race against McLaren” – Andrew Shovlin. Mercedes' Andrew Shovlin discusses the strong performance of the 2025 car.

A big step forward compared to the last two years Lando Norris has pointed to Mercedes as the main rival heading into tomorrow’s Qualifying. And indeed, why wouldn’t that be the case, considering that George Russell “split” the two McLarens on Saturday in Shanghai, China? The Constructors’ Championship standings see Mercedes firmly in second place, also thanks to the misfortunes of Red Bull (Lawson) and Ferrari (18 points lost due to disqualifications in China), but Mercedes’ role as the second-best team may be pure reality and not just a matter of luck.

Andrew Shovlin, head of Mercedes’ trackside engineers, emphasized during Friday’s press conference that, unlike the last two years, the 2025 Mercedes has performed as expected after winter simulator testing: “The car is exactly as we envisioned it, it doesn’t have the fundamental flaws of the last two, it was born as we had planned during the winter. So far, in the two weekends we’ve raced, the problems we were accustomed to haven’t emerged. Clearly, there’s a gap to McLaren that we need to close, but it seems more like a normal development race where we have to push hard, rather than trying to solve fundamental issues like in the recent past.” – he pointed out.

George Russell is clearly the team’s leader, and it couldn’t be any other way since Andrea Kimi Antonelli is a rookie. Andrew Shovlin highlighted the fact that Antonelli is only lacking in experience: “With Kimi, we’ve worked a lot with the older cars, trying to get him used to driving a Formula 1 car. From the first time we put him in an F1 car, we could see he would become a great driver; we had and still have high expectations. In Melbourne, he was exceptional. He can only improve from what he’s done so far; he lacks a lot of experience, and you can see it in comparison with George Russell, who, like Kimi Antonelli, has great natural talent. From the first practice sessions, Russell can push, while Antonelli needs to be more cautious because the last thing you want is to make a serious mistake or get involved in an accident that costs you time and confidence.”