Antonelli/Russell (Mercedes): Defeat in Malaysia, Singapore with the old car?

The rivals of championship leaders Mercedes were restless ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia: the class leaders had announced that they would finally be bringing their long-awaited update to the track. Their rivals feared that Mercedes would gain half a second per lap.

But then this happened: pole position for Max Verstappen in the Red Bull Racing-Ford, followed a day later by the Dutchman’s first win of the season. Kimi Antonelli made the most of his opportunities to finish second, whilst George Russell retired due to engine failure.

So the question now is: is there simply a glitch in the Mercedes update, or did the improvements fail to make an impact because the conditions at the Sepang International Circuit were unusual?

Answer: Even at Mercedes, the experts aren’t sure. For this reason, three potential solutions are planned for the upcoming Singapore Grand Prix weekend.

Firstly: Antonelli and Russell will drive the Malaysia specification, in the hope that the car will behave more predictably on the Singapore street circuit.

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Secondly: Antonelli and Russell will share the workload, with one driving this earlier specification in practice and the other the new one. However, the problem here is that we have a sprint weekend in Singapore, so there is only one free practice session available for a cross-check before the sprint qualifying session begins.

Thirdly: Both drivers will be driving the version of their race car as used in Baku. The new version will not be used again until Texas.

Bradley Lord, Mercedes’ deputy team principal, commented on this during the debrief following the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia: “We know that more downforce also brings more drag, and the calculation is that what you gain in the corners outweighs what you lose on the straights.”

“We then saw in Malaysia what we had expected; we recognised an advantage in the high-speed and medium-speed corners, and the drivers said they could feel it clearly. But there’s no doubt that we struggled in certain corners throughout the weekend, particularly the slower ones.”

“The combination of updates, track temperature and track surface may have meant that the car wasn’t operating within its optimal working range. The drivers had to use the throttle to manoeuvre the car through the slow corners. However, that exacerbated the problem of tyres overheating.”

“It’s not easy to untangle all of this. We need to get to the bottom of it and then decide what steps we need to take to ensure the update works well. This is important not only for this season, but also for 2027.”