Mercedes leaves Sepang with two very different emotions. Kimi Antonelli strengthened his position at the top of the Formula 1 championship with second place, opening an 84-point advantage over George Russell, the largest gap he has held this season. At the same time, the team now has two significant questions to answer quickly: the reliability of its power unit and the true performance of its latest W17 upgrade package.
For Kimi Antonelli, the Malaysian Sunday carried particular significance for the championship. Second place alone would already have represented a very positive result after he clearly got the better of George Russell during the weekend, but his team-mate’s subsequent retirement widened the gap even further. With seven races remaining on the 2026 Formula 1 calendar, an 84-point advantage has become increasingly substantial.
Kimi Antonelli extends F1 title lead despite Mercedes pace deficit
Kimi Antonelli nevertheless admitted that Mercedes was not operating at the level it had shown at several previous rounds. After taking the lead thanks to an excellent start, the Italian was eventually forced to concede to the superior pace of Max Verstappen.
“Max was very, very fast throughout the weekend,” Kimi Antonelli explained. “Red Bull did a great job and we struggled more than in previous races. With the pace we had today, second place was the best result possible.”
The Malaysian weekend had been particularly important for Mercedes because it marked the debut of an upgrade package that simulations suggested should deliver a gain of around three tenths of a second. The evidence from the circuit, however, was far less conclusive.
The Mercedes W17 showed improvements through medium- and high-speed corners, but those gains came with an aerodynamic drag penalty. More importantly, the car also appeared to struggle in the slower sections of the Sepang circuit.
Mercedes unsure whether W17 upgrades delivered expected gains
The key question is how much of Mercedes’ performance at Sepang was caused by the new package and how much was simply a consequence of the Malaysian circuit’s unusual characteristics. Its highly abrasive surface and high temperatures created conditions in which Mercedes had already shown limitations in the past.
“We still don’t know whether the upgrades made us faster or slower,” Kimi Antonelli admitted. “This year, every time we’ve raced on very old asphalt, we’ve struggled. It’s possible that the problem is simply related to this type of surface. I’m sure the team will have a lot of data to analyse after this weekend and in Singapore we’ll have a much clearer picture.”
Bradley Lord also confirmed that Mercedes does not yet have definitive answers. The team found the expected improvement in medium- and high-speed corners but struggled particularly in sections where the asphalt was more heavily deteriorated. The behaviour reminded Mercedes of what it had previously experienced in Bahrain.
The analysis will also be important in determining which configuration Mercedes uses in Singapore. A comparative test is expected during FP1 to provide more precise information about the development direction, and one possibility is reverting to the previous specification if the data shows that the new package does not provide the anticipated overall benefit. Questions surrounding the team’s development programme had already emerged earlier in the season, when Toto Wolff discussed Mercedes’ progress with its W17 upgrades.
George Russell power unit failure creates another Mercedes concern
The more serious warning from Sepang, however, concerned reliability. George Russell reported over the radio that his power unit had begun behaving abnormally. Shortly afterwards, Mercedes’ sensor data also confirmed that a problem was developing, leaving the team with no alternative but to retire the British driver’s car.
“We saw that some sensors were starting to behave abnormally and it became clear that we would have to stop the car,” Bradley Lord explained. “We’ve had a failure of some kind, and now we have to understand what that means for his power unit pool.”
That is precisely where George Russell’s situation becomes more complicated. The Mercedes driver had already stretched the management of his available engines to the limit, initially postponing the introduction of a fifth unit at Monza and then again at Baku.
The objective had been to reach Austin, where Mercedes expects to have access to the ADUO evolution, but the problem suffered at Sepang could force the team to alter that programme.
Bradley Lord did not rule out that possibility, referring to a potential “double whammy”: losing a significant number of points in Malaysia and then finding themselves forced to introduce a new power unit before being able to benefit from the planned upgrade.
Mercedes reliability remains relevant to Kimi Antonelli’s title bid
The immediate problem concerns George Russell, but it inevitably matters to Kimi Antonelli as well. Reliability has been Mercedes’ main question mark this season and, just as Kimi Antonelli has established a significant championship advantage, the failure on the sister car served as a reminder that nothing can yet be taken for granted.
Kimi Antonelli can nevertheless leave Sepang with another important confirmation. Even during a weekend in which Mercedes was not the technical benchmark, he maximised the result available to him. Second place gives him an 84-point advantage and an increasingly secure position at the top of the Formula 1 drivers’ standings.
Mercedes must now turn the Malaysian weekend into answers. The team needs to establish exactly what happened to George Russell’s power unit and determine how much of its difficult weekend was caused by Sepang’s characteristics and how much was linked to the new W17 package.
Singapore comes immediately afterwards and will provide an important opportunity to verify those conclusions. Kimi Antonelli, meanwhile, will arrive with his biggest championship lead of the season so far — and with the Formula 1 world title looking even closer after Sepang.
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