The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team is currently going through a challenging and problematic phase in this part of the 2025 Formula 1 season. The recent British Grand Prix at Silverstone further confirmed a growing sense of confusion within the German-British outfit, raising concerns about both race strategy and team management.
During the race at Silverstone Circuit, British driver George Russell managed to recover and finish in tenth place, securing only a single championship point, while his teammate, young Italian talent Andrea Kimi Antonelli, was forced to retire from the race. The overall result was disappointing and emblematic of a wider crisis facing the Brackley-based team.
Motorsport journalists Giorgio Terruzzi, Pino Allievi, and Stefano Nicoli focused their attention on the performance and decisions of Mercedes following a string of underwhelming results that have started to draw serious criticism.
Despite showing strong pace at the Canadian Grand Prix, where the Mercedes W15 was arguably the fastest car on the grid, the subsequent European rounds have turned into a nightmare. A combination of reliability problems, understandable rookie mistakes from Kimi Antonelli, and puzzling in-race decisions have contributed to Mercedes’ downturn in form. What was once one of the team’s strongest assets—race strategy and operations—has seemingly turned into a significant weakness during the 2025 season.
Analysis of Mercedes’ mistakes
Some revealing insights into Mercedes’ recent problems emerged during the podcast “Terruzzi Racconta”, which explored the challenges made evident during the race at Silverstone. Interestingly, the attention was not focused solely on the raw performance of the Mercedes W15 car, but rather on the race execution and strategic decisions made by the team—an area where Mercedes had long been considered a benchmark in Formula 1.
“It’s yet another race where they chose the wrong moment to change tyres,” said journalist Giorgio Terruzzi, highlighting the team’s recurring struggles with pit stop timing. The decision to apply the same underperforming strategy to both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli was also questioned. According to the panel, this failure to split strategies between their two drivers was an unusual and questionable choice, especially in such a dynamic and weather-sensitive race.
Stefano Nicoli recalled a similar error made by Mercedes in the past, offering further context: “With George Russell, they kept two fresh sets of medium compound tyres, yet sent him out on the hard compound instead. It’s a decision that makes no sense from many angles.” Nicoli continued, “In some ways, it reminded me of what happened in Monaco, where they effectively lost the race from the very beginning. They wasted a brilliant qualifying lap by Russell, and ended up with him buried in the midfield, forced to fight his way back up. They made life extremely difficult for themselves.”
This ongoing trend of poor strategic calls and ineffective race management has now cost Mercedes dearly in the Constructors’ Championship. The team has recently lost second place in the standings to Scuderia Ferrari, as a result of multiple missed opportunities and lost points.
Furthermore, Kimi Antonelli has only seen the chequered flag twice in the last six races. Among those underwhelming finishes was a disappointing eighteenth-place result at the Monaco Grand Prix—again due to a baffling and ineffective race strategy that left fans and analysts questioning the team’s decision-making processes.
The picture emerging from Silverstone suggests that Mercedes is no longer the well-oiled machine that once dominated Formula 1. With strategic blunders piling up and performance inconsistencies continuing, the team now finds itself at a critical crossroads in the 2025 season.
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