Saudi Arabian GP – Mercedes is there, and wants to stay there. The Brackley team has shown consistency and a desire for redemption in this long season start, which began in Australia and continued through Japan, China, Bahrain, and Jeddah. A sequence of races that has highlighted a team in slow but steady growth, determined to return to the top of Formula 1 after difficult years.
During the race, however, the Anglo-German team seemed rather subdued. Despite an excellent start from both drivers, positions quickly settled. Andrea Kimi Antonelli lost a position at the start, overtaken by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and struggled to find pace from that point on.
George Russell, now nicknamed “Solid Man” for his reliability, built his race around a defensive strategy. After initially fending off attacks from Ferrari, he had to concede to Charles Leclerc, unable to match the pace of the Maranello car. A race conducted intelligently, but without flashes of brilliance.
Mercedes – Tire degradation the number one enemy
The central issue for Mercedes on Sunday was tire degradation. Russell repeatedly reported over the radio a loss of tire performance, complaining on lap 48 that he had no more grip and hinting at the desire for a late additional pit stop, which was denied by the pit wall to avoid compromising the final result.
Antonelli also highlighted the same difficulties in his team radio with his race engineer, Bono. The young Italian described a “survival phase” in the middle part of the race to manage the tires, a symptom of a setup that is still not optimized for long distances.
Despite everything, Mercedes can be satisfied with the final result: George Russell finished fifth, followed by teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli in sixth. A double points finish that confirms the project’s solidity and offers hope for the next rounds of the championship.
Both drivers reported being exhausted at the end of the race due to the heat. Kimi Antonelli suffered from stomach pain and struggled to get out of the car, while George Russell said he reached the finish line completely drained.
Saudi Arabian GP 2025 – George Russell: “Today went differently than Bahrain. We need to understand why”
While after qualifying George Russell had been relatively positive, admitting that Mercedes didn’t have McLaren’s pace, his tone was more perplexed after the race. What stood out most was overheating and tire degradation. Russell drew a direct comparison with Bahrain, pointing out that although temperatures were also high there, the car had responded far better than it did today in Jeddah. An abnormal behavior that raises some questions within Mercedes.
“We need to understand why Bahrain was so positive, considering it’s also a track with overheating issues, but it’s a very different kind of overheating compared to what we have here in Jeddah. We had higher expectations for today than for Bahrain, but it went the other way around.”
“The race pace was entirely down to the tires—they were overheating excessively. But we know that this is currently a bit of a weak point for our car.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli: “The pace came out in the end”
It was also a tire management race for Andrea Kimi Antonelli who, like his teammate, suffered greatly from tire degradation, particularly in the middle stages of the race. The Italian driver stated that the car’s true pace only emerged in the final part of the Grand Prix.
“I kept managing even when Hamilton behind was catching up. In the last 10 laps, when I felt the car more, the pace came out and I pushed more.”
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