Toto Wolff has admitted that Mercedes made a mistake with its latest W17 upgrades and still does not understand exactly where things went wrong. The team’s revised Formula 1 car has become increasingly unpredictable under braking, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli struggling with both understeer and oversteer. Despite Mercedes moving closer to securing both 2026 world championships, the problems have raised concerns about the technical direction of its 2027 car.
The Brackley-based team is approaching a potentially historic achievement. Kimi Antonelli is closing in on becoming the youngest Formula 1 world champion in history, while Mercedes is nearing its first Constructors’ Championship since 2021. However, the closer the team gets to securing those titles, the more important it becomes to understand why its recent development package has made the W17 harder to drive.
Mercedes W17 upgrades leave George Russell and Kimi Antonelli struggling
The latest developments have failed to produce the expected improvement in the W17’s behaviour. Both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli had already expressed concerns about the updated car during the Malaysian and Singapore Grand Prix weekends, and those difficulties continued during Friday practice for the United States Grand Prix at Austin.
In FP1 at the Circuit of The Americas, both Mercedes drivers finished behind Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. That placed the two Silver Arrows behind a Ferrari, a Red Bull and a McLaren, underlining how competitive the battle between the leading Formula 1 teams has become.
However, their finishing positions in the opening practice session were not Mercedes’ biggest concern. The more significant issue was the difficulty both drivers experienced in finding confidence behind the wheel of the revised W17.
The updated car appears less predictable than its earlier specification, creating problems under braking and through corners with different characteristics. That inconsistency makes it harder for the drivers to maintain a stable balance throughout a lap and extract the performance they expect from the package.
The technical comparison of the leading teams during Austin FP1 also highlighted Mercedes’ difficulties on corner entry and through slower sections, where the car struggled to rotate as effectively as its rivals.
Toto Wolff admits Mercedes made a mistake with its latest F1 upgrades
Speaking to Sky Sport F1 after the free practice session, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff openly acknowledged that the latest updates had fundamentally changed the behaviour of the W17.
According to the Austrian, the previous version of the car had offered George Russell and Kimi Antonelli a stable and predictable platform, even though Mercedes had gradually lost some performance relative to its competitors after going several months without a major upgrade.
“What we’re seeing is that, before the upgrade we introduced, the car was very stable and fast — naturally, towards the end it was a little slower than the others because the last update we’d made had been in Montreal,” Toto Wolff explained.
“But when we brought the latest upgrade, the car changed completely. Now the car is nervous under braking, it has understeer in some corners and oversteer in others, and something isn’t right.”
The combination of understeer and oversteer is particularly frustrating because it means the car does not respond consistently to the driver’s inputs. Rather than dealing with a single handling limitation, the Mercedes drivers face different balance problems depending on the corner.
Why Mercedes wants to solve its W17 problems before 2027
For Toto Wolff, the concern is not limited to losing performance during the remaining races of 2026. Mercedes also needs to understand what happened during development to avoid carrying the same uncertainty into the preparation of its next Formula 1 car.
Although the team is on the verge of securing both championships, the latest aerodynamic developments have created an unexpected problem that its engineers have not yet fully explained. Identifying the cause is therefore an important part of Mercedes’ preparations for 2027.
“That’s why it’s better if we try to understand it today, during this championship, rather than next February. But we made a mistake, and we still don’t understand where,” Toto Wolff concluded.
The admission is significant for a team that has enjoyed such a competitive 2026 season. Mercedes has demonstrated the strength of its overall package through the championship, but the latest upgrades have shown how difficult it can be to improve aerodynamic performance without disturbing the car’s balance.
With George Russell and Kimi Antonelli seeking greater confidence in the revised W17, the remaining race weekends offer valuable opportunities to identify what went wrong and determine how the development programme should progress.
The immediate objective is to restore stability under braking and a more consistent balance through different types of corners. Beyond that, Toto Wolff wants Mercedes to understand its upgrade mistake before the team commits to the technical solutions that will shape its 2027 Formula 1 challenger.
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