Mercedes admits Sepang upgrade has not delivered as Antonelli trails Verstappen's Red Bull
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Mercedes has admitted that its big upgrade for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia did not bring the lap-time gain it expected on Friday. Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin also said the W17 was still trailing the field, and Red Bull in particular.
It is a sharp turn from the mood before the weekend. On Thursday, championship leader Kimi Antonelli said the team's engineers had told him the package was worth about three tenths of a second per lap.
The upgrade is Mercedes' first substantial one since the Canadian Grand Prix in May. It arrived with Antonelli 66 points clear of teammate George Russell, who cut the gap from 81 points by winning in Azerbaijan.
Shovlin: we were still trailing, especially to Red Bull
Mercedes ran the new parts on both cars from the start. In the team's Friday debrief, Shovlin was clear that the gain had not shown up.
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We were running the latest update package on both cars today but rather than seeing the step in lap time that we had hoped for, we have been chasing a tricky balance and a fair amount of tyre overheating. We had a few test items on the cars in FP1 that might have clouded the situation but for FP2, we had both cars in a representative configuration, and it looked like we were still trailing, especially to the Red Bull.- Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes trackside engineering director
Shovlin believes the single-lap deficit should be the easier one to fix. The bigger concern is race pace.
He added: "Our concern is more the long run, where we seemed unusually offset on pace, and that is going to be the more challenging problem to solve."
Shovlin also said that "the headline times are not especially representative".
Mercedes finished seventh and eighth in FP2, nearly half a second behind session leader Charles Leclerc although Russell abandoned a hot lap and Antonelli had one deleted for track limits.
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Simulations did not match the track
However, the problem appears to go beyond messy qualifying runs as the data did not tally with Merc's predictions.
Before the weekend, Antonelli had been careful to say that the projected gain still had to be proven on track.
I've been told that it's three tenths, which is an important jump, but we must bear in mind that it's the result of work that has lasted months.- Kimi Antonelli before the weekend,
What it means for Antonelli's cushion
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Red Bull's progress makes the timing awkward for Mercedes, with McLaren and Ferrari also competitive on high fuel.
With a 66-point lead, Antonelli can afford a difficult weekend. But a car that eats its tyres on long runs while Verstappen gets stronger would make the lead much harder to defend.
Mercedes is not giving up on the package. Shovlin said the team had "some good ideas for setup changes" to try in overnight simulator work.
FP3 and qualifying will show whether the missing three tenths can still be found.
FP3 and qualifying will show whether the missing three tenths can still be found.
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F1-stand 2026
Season
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | MercedesMER | 302 | |
2 | MercedesMER | 236 | |
3 | FerrariFER | 199 | |
4 | McLarenMCL | 186 | |
5 | FerrariFER | 179 | |
6 | Red Bull RacingRBR | 163 | |
7 | McLarenMCL | 120 | |
8 | Red Bull RacingRBR | 86 | |
9 | Racing BullsRCB | 59 | |
10 | AlpineALP | 41 |
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