Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed a few of the elements behind his group’s “dominant” 1-3 on the F1 Canadian Grand Prix.
Mercedes prevented their traditional warmth struggles which have hampered the efficiency of their W16 as George Russell transformed pole place into a formidable victory in Montreal.
Russell saved Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen at bay all through Sunday’s 70-lap race, whereas rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli claimed his maiden F1 podium in third to safe a double rostrum for the Silver Arrows and cap their strongest weekend up to now in 2025.
Requested if there was an evidence to Mercedes’ efficiency within the hotter temperatures, Wolff joked: “I assumed it is after I’m sporting a pullover, there’s some form of correlation with our performances as a result of which means it is chilly! And right now, 50 levels monitor temperature, and we have been dominant.
“We have had some issues altering on the automotive, we’ve a brand new rear suspension. I am actually completely happy how the group has managed that, the trackside group and in addition again within the manufacturing unit, how these items have been coming onto the automotive. However I suppose you could have a look at the monitor format.
“Montreal was all the time good to us; it lacks the everyday high-speed corners the place we undergo extra within the warmth. That is one, and quantity two is it’s fairly a easy asphalt right here, which is much less abrasive and subsequently much less damaging to our automotive that suffers from rear tyre degradation and overheating.”
HOW MUCH OF A ROLE DID NEW SUSPENSION PLAY?
Mercedes reintroduced the most recent model of a brand new rear suspension format – which initially debuted at Imola earlier than being dropped – in Montreal. Wolff insisted the change was not the “magic answer” behind the group’s dramatic type turnaround.
“I feel we introduced the brand new rear geometry for that specific drawback that we had, the rear [tyre] floor overheating, and we weren’t fairly certain concerning the leads to Imola, as a result of they had been worse than we anticipated, after which taking it off I feel was the precise factor to do – and bringing it on right here, as a result of hopefully the event path is right,” Wolff defined.
“In these form of rules, you by no means know whether or not you land growth or whether or not you do not; correlation has been troublesome, notably for us, however for a lot of different groups, and placing it on right here is… I feel there are different elements at play right here.
“The monitor format is simply totally different, the asphalt is totally different, and there may be by no means one magic answer that makes the automotive go from a, for example, best-case podium automotive to a dominant winner. However the extra information units we’ve, the extra we study.”
Wolff was fast to downplay recommendations that Mercedes could possibly be the group to beat as soon as extra on the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix.
“We have seen it final yr that on some tracks, it wasn’t even near who was second, however we dominated all through the weekend, and that is a little bit bit the sample we’ve seen right here,” he confused.
“Austria goes to be a unique ballgame, totally different monitor format, totally different challenges, so all of our eyes and brains are targeting Austria now. That is carried out, tick the field.”
