{"id":89657,"date":"2025-05-10T08:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T08:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/89657\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T08:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T08:56:12","slug":"where-mercedes-has-been-losing-out-in-f1-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/89657\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Mercedes has been losing out in F1 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you look at Formula 1\u2019s 2025 drivers\u2019 standings, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking Mercedes<\/a>\u2019 George Russell<\/a> has a shot at the title. The 27-year-old Briton has been a paragon of consistency thus far, completing every single qualifying session and race \u2013 even the sprint ones \u2013 in the top five, with four grand prix podiums to his name.<\/p>\n

But equally, Russell hasn\u2019t led a single race lap this year. The closest he got was at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where he briefly challenged polesitter Oscar Piastri<\/a> at the start but ended up a distant runner-up, 15.5 seconds away from victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s about pure pace, that\u2019s qualifying,\u201d Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff commented. \u201cYou put everything down there\u00a0\u2013 what is the car capable of generating in terms of downforce? And we are right in the ballgame.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end, the points are being given for a race. And the race means also being capable to maintain that pace over a long time, over many laps, and we are not capable of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolff is not wrong. Over the first three grands prix of the season, the lead Silver Arrow was 0.289s off pole position on average. Mercedes has brought this gap down to 0.116s over the latest three.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, long-run pace does remain a weakness, and the gap to victory in safety-car-less races keeps increasing: 11s in China, 17s in Japan, 27s in Jeddah and 38s in Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is simply that we have a really fast car \u2013 I believe on a single lap or on a few laps, absolute where it can be \u2013 but we\u2019re just not good with the tyres over an extended run,\u201d Wolff admitted. \u201cAnd McLaren<\/a> shows how it\u2019s being done. To a degree, I think that Red Bull with Max [Verstappen], they\u2019re managing it better.<\/p>\n

\"Lando <\/p>\n

Lando Norris, McLaren, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Zak Mauger \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are solid in what we\u2019re doing, but they are definitely doing an excellent job by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolff also categorically refused to accuse McLaren of being cheeky with regards to the technical regulations; the papaya team has reportedly found a way to prevent the heat from its brakes from increasing its rear tyre temperature out of the working window.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

The Austrian insisted the leaders of the Woking-based squad were \u201cgood people with integrity\u201d, adding: \u201cI have no doubt that these guys stay within the rules. It\u2019s just really good development. They\u2019ve understood how to manage the tyre much better than everybody else. And in my opinion, it\u2019s totally legit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, from a team management point of view, when somebody\u2019s doing a better job than you, we should not look at that and say they\u2019re cheating, because that\u2019s not the right attitude anyway. So we just need to become better and eventually not get 30 or 35 seconds [behind] over 55 laps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Focusing on tyre management just makes sense for Mercedes, with Wolff deeming it \u201cthe biggest differentiator between the top four teams\u201d and explaining this work will be \u201cvalid\u201d for next year\u2019s car despite the upcoming technical overhaul in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we are on it, completely on it,\u201d he proclaimed. \u201cIt\u2019s not like we are looking at it like a Bambi in front of the headlights. We are on it, we are in there, we are trying to find out, we are experimenting \u2013 and we are going to definitely be able to challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Ben Vinel\n<\/p>\n

Formula 1\n<\/p>\n

George Russell\n<\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli\n<\/p>\n

Mercedes\n<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you look at Formula 1\u2019s 2025 drivers\u2019 standings, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking Mercedes\u2019 George Russell has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[13328,4199,707,4200,9824,4859,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-89657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","9":"tag-f1","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-george-russell","13":"tag-mercedes","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114482707475166872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}