Mercedes shook off the competition with the arrival of updates and according to Antonelli the advantage could even be greater than what was seen in Canada. If in recent years the Silver Arrows excelled in low temperatures, the situation now seems different, with the Brackley team having invested heavily in cooling. Toto Wolff’s team hopes to reap the benefits in Spain, but in the meantime enjoys the great progress made at the start.
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Some like it hot
In Montreal, Mercedes repeated their 2025 success, but this time the cold even limited the competitiveness of the Silver Arrows. “I think this weekend we didn’t see the potential of the package”, reflects Antonelli. “The conditions were very particular, it was cold and just having the tires in the right window made a difference. Our car, then, is very good at cooling the tires, especially this weekend, where it was so cold that it was difficult to get them up to temperature. I think this penalized us a bit.”
The Italian driver continues: “We didn’t see the potential of the package, it will be much clearer in Barcelona how much it actually gained us. I think we would have been there even with the old configuration. This package gives you more downforce and we felt it, but it also improved the cooling level. I think that made life a bit harder for us this weekend. Anyway, you can feel that the package gives more downforce and that the car generally has more grip.”
Speaking of cooling, Antonelli mainly refers to tire cooling. This year, the development of the rims has returned to the teams, who are investing heavily in this area, with different schools of thought. According to Kimi, Mercedes worked to prevent tire overheating, with the side effect of encountering some difficulties when track temperatures drop, as in Canada. The championship leader, in fact, had to manage some graining on the medium tires in the second part of the race, while in the early stages with the softs, quicker to reach temperature, the Mercedes drivers were 6-7 tenths faster than everyone else. Unlike previous years, the Brackley car no longer fears the arrival of heat and on European tracks the W17’s advantage could be even greater.
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Good starts
Another good piece of news for Mercedes comes from progress at the start. During the break, the team worked a lot on the software and Antonelli’s clutch lever to improve the launch from a standstill, after many problems in the first races. Kimi’s feedback is more than positive: “It’s much better, definitely a big step forward and it was needed. The team made a nice step and also Marcelo, my engineer who follows this kind of thing. It’s a step forward in the right direction and I’m happy about it, because making good starts is very important for the rest of the race.” Mercedes arrives at the European season with the best premises, even if the road to the title is still very long.
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