Following two difficult weekends at Imola and Monaco, Mercedes needed to send at least a signal—something that could bring it back into the fight for top positions, as seen before the Italian round, when updates such as the new rear suspension had been introduced but later shelved.
In Spain, the Silver Arrows “completed” the package, introducing an updated floor, especially in the outer section, aiming to increase aerodynamic load and better manage the airflow towards the rear of the W16, thereby improving its overall efficiency.
For now, it seems Mercedes is back in the upper part of the field, and most importantly, that it has rediscovered its strength over a single lap, as seen several times earlier in the season. While it’s true that George Russell qualified third at Imola, effectively joining the pole battle, in that case, the medium tyre had helped give the car some stability.
In Monaco, after a difficult start in free practice, the team completely overhauled the setup for qualifying, but technical issues and incidents prevented them from verifying whether the direction taken was the right one.
Friday in Barcelona told a different story, with a W16 that looked strong over a single lap during FP2. In the first session, the team had chosen to save the soft tyre—later revealed to be the best compound of the day—instead running a set of mediums and hards. The latter proved problematic for many, so much so that most teams quickly discarded a set.
While over a single lap the W16 appears to have regained the characteristics seen a few races ago—also showing good competitiveness in medium- and low-speed corners, particularly compared to Red Bull, which struggled with rear instability during corner entry and mid-corner, unable to fully exploit aerodynamic load until the platform settled—the story changes over longer runs.
Russell was one of the drivers who completed the most laps on the soft tyre, a sign that the Brackley team wanted to focus on one of the weak points seen in recent races, such as Jeddah and Imola, with Miami being the sole positive exception. However, the results were not particularly encouraging.
The Briton struggled: although his initial pace was fairly aggressive, which may have stressed the tyres, his times increased due to excessive overheating, particularly at the front and left rear. Russell then had to slow down due to lack of grip, repeatedly lapping over 1:21 to cool the tyres. In the final laps, he regained some rhythm, returning to more competitive times, but without standing out.
“In the qualifying simulation laps we did quite well. It was nice to be back at the level the car was before, after a few difficult races. However, the race pace doesn’t seem great. And that has been one of our targets recently—trying to improve the long-run pace. So we need to analyse the data. We need to compare with our rivals to understand where we are. But certainly, the race pace is a bit of a concern,” Russell commented at the end of the day.
It was a more eventful day for Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who, after hitting a kerb with the floor, reported increased bouncing, especially in high-speed corners, both in qualifying and race simulations. Nonetheless, the Italian highlighted the step forward made between FP1 and FP2 in terms of setup, particularly during the qualifying simulation, where he finished about two-tenths behind Russell.
However, for Kimi Antonelli too, the race pace figures were not particularly encouraging, with lap times often above the 1:21 mark. The feeling, though, is that he found the right setup direction after a more complex FP1.
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