All the secrets behind Mercedes' upgrades and their dominant performance in Montreal

Mercedes dominated once again for the whole weekend in Montreal, not only thanks to the package of updates the team brought, but especially because the track layout suited the W17 well.

This allowed Antonelli and Russell to dominate every session throughout the weekend, showing clear superiority over their competitors and eventually enabling Kimi to comfortably win Sunday's race following the retirement of his teammate, while setting much faster times than his rivals. Let’s try to understand where this great level of dominance came from.

The beginning of the 2026 season has been a dream start for Mercedes, with four victories in the first four rounds and complete dominance over their rivals.

However, during the last weekend in Miami, due to the upgrades introduced and the favourable track-layout conditions, McLaren became a concrete threat to the Brackley team both during the Sprint and the main race, fighting for victory until the very last laps of the race.

To try and regain part of their advantage, Mercedes arrived in Canada with a package of updates, which included changes to both the front wing and the floor, two crucial areas for generating downforce and controlling the airflow around the car in these new regulations.

As for the front wing, it features a completely different philosophy from the previous version.

As shown in the drawing below, the new front wing features a new mainplane and flap design, which now have a flatter profile across their entire width, aimed at maximising downforce (orange arrow).

Furthermore, unlike the spec used in Miami, the new version also features a different connection between the mainplane and the endplate footplate: as shown by the yellow arrow, the new version features a much smaller curl than the previous version, in which the mainplane connected to the endplate with a much wider curve.

The footplate also has a curved lower edge (green arrow), which gives continuity to the new mainplane shape.

Finally, the new front wing also features a micro-aerodynamic modification: as highlighted by the arrow and pink circle, a small vortex generator has appeared on the endplate's upper tray. Its purpose is to generate small vortices that maximise the outwash effect of the airflow, reducing drag.

As for the changes to the floor, the team made small adjustments to the section of the floor in front of the rear tyres, adding a small side winglet designed to manage rear-tyre turbulence, in line with the solutions also adopted by other top teams like Red Bull and McLaren.

The updates were fitted on both cars from FP1 and seemed to deliver the hoped-for results straight away: despite the ‘green’ track and slippery conditions, Antonelli and Russell topped the first session, completely dominating both the qualifying simulations and the long runs.

Leclerc, in P3, ended the session almost eight tenths behind Antonelli in P1, proving that the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve particularly suited the updated W17.

The Mercedes car, in fact, seems to perform really well on the straights and in the traction phase, thanks to a significant engine advantage over its competitors, both in terms of pure power and energy deployment across the different phases. The car also seems to be very well balanced under braking, another crucial aspect at the Canadian circuit.

Another critical aspect during the whole weekend was tyre temperature: with the air temperature floating around 12-15°C, it was very hard for drivers to warm up the front axle and especially to maintain tyre temperature on the track’s long straights.

From this point of view, Mercedes seemed to have the edge over their competitors, managing to bring the tyres up to temperature very quickly without suffering from degradation and graining as they aged.

All these factors combined allowed Mercedes to open quite a significant gap to their rivals in all sessions, with Russell and Antonelli appearing more concerned with fighting each other than worrying about the rivals behind them.

The clearest demonstration of Mercedes’ superiority, driven by better energy and tyre management, came during Sunday’s main race, when Antonelli and Russell fought aggressively against each other without losing significant lap time to Verstappen and Hamilton behind.

With the two McLarens out of contention due to a poor strategic decision, no other top team could effectively put pressure on the Brackley team.

Not by accident, in fact, as soon as Russell retired, Antonelli was able to manage his pace and bring home the fourth consecutive win, putting 43 points between him and Russell in the Championship.

At the moment, also thanks to the package of upgrades introduced in Canada, the only rival that could challenge Mercedes in ‘ideal conditions’, i.e. when every aspect goes as the team has planned, seems to be McLaren, even if they haven’t won a main race yet.

The upcoming race in Monte Carlo, due to the uniqueness of the layout and the reduced importance of the engine, could also see Ferrari and Red Bull emerge in what could potentially be a very exciting four-team battle for the win.