Mercedes left the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix with one of its strongest points hauls of the season, yet Zandvoort also exposed an unusual W17 weakness that the team still does not fully understand. Kimi Antonelli finished second and George Russell third, strengthening Mercedes’ position in both championships even though the car failed to display the performance advantage it had enjoyed for much of the season.
The overall assessment was therefore positive, but the weekend also produced several technical questions that Mercedes intends to investigate ahead of the coming races. Bradley Lord, Mercedes Deputy Team Principal, and Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director, analysed the contrasting Zandvoort weekend on the team’s official podcast, The Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show, discussing McLaren’s superior Grand Prix pace, the W17’s difficulties through the high-speed corners and the late team order involving Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.
Mercedes Dutch GP result hides McLaren race-pace deficit
Kimi Antonelli’s second place and George Russell’s third delivered a valuable result for Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship, despite the team’s outright performance being weaker than that of its main rivals.
“On Sunday evening at the airport, we reflected on a weekend where, unusually for this season, we didn’t have the fastest car and we were slightly on the defensive,” Bradley Lord admitted. “And yet, when you add up the points, it was our second-best haul of the season. We didn’t win the Grand Prix, McLaren was faster and Ferrari looked strong at various points, but we still extended our lead in the Constructors’ Championship. Beneath the surface of two consecutive races without a victory, there is a positive championship story.”
The Grand Prix itself revealed a significant difference in race pace compared with what Mercedes had expected after winning Saturday’s Sprint. McLaren proved considerably stronger over the longer distance, continuing the progress that has also been linked to its work with Mercedes HPP on the 2026 Power Unit.
“McLaren was much faster in the Grand Prix than in the Sprint, and that was difficult to predict,” Bradley Lord continued. “In the second half of the race, and certainly during Kimi Antonelli’s second stint on the Hard tyre, it became clear that maintaining the lead was going to be extremely difficult. His performance dropped off and he became much less comfortable with the balance of the car.”
Mercedes cannot yet explain W17 high-speed corner weakness
Despite the satisfaction generated by the overall points haul, Andrew Shovlin identified several specific technical areas Mercedes must understand before the next races. The most obvious weakness appeared through Turns 7, 8 and 9, where the W17 struggled significantly.
“We were particularly weak through Turns 7, 8 and 9. That high-speed sequence puts the left-side tyres under sustained load and we still don’t fully understand why we struggled there. We have some ideas, but it isn’t a problem we’ve encountered elsewhere this year.”
Mercedes attempted to improve that characteristic for Kimi Antonelli ahead of the main qualifying session, but the change appeared to create compromises elsewhere around the Zandvoort lap.
“We improved that area slightly for Kimi Antonelli in the main qualifying session, but what we gained there seemed to cost us in other parts of the track. On top of that, the pace varied quite a lot from stint to stint: George Russell’s first stint was weak compared with the later ones, while Kimi Antonelli started strongly and then dropped away.”
Perhaps the most intriguing element was that Mercedes was not making dramatic changes to the W17 between those phases, yet its balance characteristics continued to shift.
“We weren’t making major changes to the electronic settings or wing angle, and yet the balance was changing. The two drivers even finished with opposite characteristics: George Russell was suffering from understeer and Kimi Antonelli from oversteer. We need to understand why there was such a pronounced difference.”
The balance problem was particularly evident in Kimi Antonelli’s race, with the Mercedes driver still managing to secure second place despite significant instability during parts of the Dutch Grand Prix.
Mercedes assesses growing challenge from McLaren
The comparison with McLaren has become increasingly important after the Woking team won both in Budapest and at Zandvoort. Mercedes now needs to determine whether the change in competitiveness reflects circuit-specific differences or a more significant shift in the development battle.
“In Hungary, we were probably close to McLaren in terms of absolute race pace, while at Zandvoort we were slightly behind,” Bradley Lord explained. “We need to establish whether that gap is going to grow or whether, as we believe, it reflects the different timing of our development programmes.”
Mercedes therefore intends to focus on extracting everything possible from its current specification while waiting for the next development step.
“For the next races, we’ll have to maximise the package we have available, taking care of every single detail before the next upgrade package brings another step in performance.”
That development race could prove increasingly important as the season moves into its decisive phase, particularly with the championship standings placing greater importance on every opportunity to maximise points even when Mercedes does not possess the fastest car.
Why Mercedes put Kimi Antonelli back ahead of George Russell
Mercedes also had to make a rapid strategic decision between its two drivers during the closing stages of the Dutch Grand Prix. The objective was to avoid losing a podium position to Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari after Kimi Antonelli was able to take advantage of a Virtual Safety Car.
“Kimi Antonelli took the opportunity to make a free pit stop under the Virtual Safety Car. If George Russell had made the same stop, he would have dropped behind the Ferrari and lost the podium position,” Bradley Lord explained.
The team had already discussed such a scenario during its Sunday morning strategy briefing.
“We had been very clear in the strategy briefing on Sunday morning: the group was too tightly packed for our drivers to lose time fighting each other. George Russell naturally questioned the instruction when he received it over the radio, but he understood the bigger picture. If the circumstances had been reversed, we would have acted in exactly the same way.”
The decision became one of the key strategic moments of Mercedes’ race, with George Russell subsequently backing Mercedes’ team-order decision after the Grand Prix.
Mercedes considered using overtake mode to help George Russell
When the positions were exchanged, Mercedes also considered how best to manage the gaps and give George Russell the strongest possible chance of defending third place from Lewis Hamilton until the chequered flag. One possibility involved creating a train between the two W17s, while another was to give George Russell access to an alternative energy deployment setting.
“We considered giving George Russell the overtake mode to help him defend, but the gain was around two tenths of a second, mainly on the straight,” Andrew Shovlin explained. “There was a concern that trying something untested could result in the two cars getting in each other’s way.”
Mercedes ultimately decided that giving George Russell clean air offered the better chance of retaining the podium.
“We thought it was better for Kimi Antonelli to move through and give George Russell clean air so he could optimise his exit from the final corner and the braking zone for Turn 1. With these cars, you can’t follow at a gap of two tenths without losing downforce.”
Andrew Shovlin was particularly impressed by how George Russell handled the pressure during the closing stages.
“George Russell’s defence was impressive. The VSC helped cool the situation down for a couple of laps and allowed him to manage the energy, but he handled the situation extremely well.”
The strategic call also illustrated how Mercedes prioritised the overall championship picture rather than allowing an intra-team battle to jeopardise a major points haul. The decision to restore Kimi Antonelli’s position was later explained in greater detail by Toto Wolff after the Dutch Grand Prix.
George Russell returns to form after earlier Mercedes technical problems
Zandvoort also produced encouraging signs for George Russell, who won the Sprint before securing a podium in Sunday’s Grand Prix. His stronger weekend followed a difficult period during the first half of the season in which Mercedes technical problems had repeatedly affected his performance.
“George Russell had quite a lot to deal with towards the end of the first half of the season, including some problems that originated on our side,” Andrew Shovlin said. “In several races, a Power Unit problem cost him straight-line speed, which was understandably frustrating while we worked to identify the cause.”
Mercedes eventually traced and resolved the issue before the Hungarian Grand Prix, allowing George Russell to regain the consistency that had been disrupted by the earlier problems.
“It took an in-depth investigation, but we understood the problem and fixed it before Budapest, where George Russell had a more solid weekend. At Zandvoort, he won the Sprint and performed very well throughout the event,” Andrew Shovlin concluded. “Hopefully he can carry this form into the second half of the championship.”
The Dutch Grand Prix therefore produced a complicated but ultimately valuable weekend for Mercedes. The W17 was not the fastest car, McLaren held a clear race-pace advantage on Sunday and the unexplained high-speed corner weakness has given the engineering team an important problem to solve. Yet second place for Kimi Antonelli, third for George Russell and a Sprint victory ensured Mercedes still extracted a major championship return from a weekend in which its underlying performance was less convincing than the final results suggested.
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