Mercedes recently rowed back on a rear suspension upgrade that Toto Wolff has said will likely \u201cend up in a bin\u201d.<\/p>\n
The rear suspension upgrade Mercedes introduced for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will be \u201cin a bin\u201d for the rest of the F1 2025 season, with the components introduced bringing about a lack of driver confidence, particularly on high-speed corner entry.<\/p>\n
Toto Wolff: Imola upgrade \u2018let something creep in\u2019 on W16<\/p>\n
Over the first quarter of the F1 2025 season, the Mercedes W16 proved competitive and versatile in the hands of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, with regular strong points finishes and occasional podium finishes.<\/p>\n
But, during the second quarter of the season, this form ebbed away, with the team becoming aware that some element of its own development path had brought the car down an incorrect development path.<\/p>\n
In Hungary, the team reverted to an older-specification rear suspension setup that had been used up until the start of the European season, which seemed to yield immediate results as Russell returned to the podium and saw a more confident performance for Antonelli, even if his end result of 10th place was somewhat underwhelming.<\/p>\n
With Mercedes having taken a 1-3 finish in Montreal in June, catching the issue took a little longer than might have been the case without that triumph, with Wolff explaining the team\u2019s approach to identifying the issues after the chequered flag in Budapest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we tried to solve a problem with the Imola upgrade, with a mechanical upgrade,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat may or may not have solved an issue, but it let something else creep into the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was an instability that basically took all confidence from the drivers, and it took us a few races to figure that out.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we were also misled a little bit by the Montreal win, we thought maybe that\u2019s not so bad, and we came to the conclusion it needs to go off, it went off, and the car is back to solid form.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what may become of the upgraded components which appear to have brought the W16 in the wrong direction, Wolff smiled wryly, \u201cWell, that rear-axle will be ending in a bin somewhere, I guess!<\/p>\n
\u201cUpgrades are here to bring performance, and there\u2019s a lot of simulations and analysis that go into the parts of the car.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then they\u2019re just utterly wrong, and you need to go back to the analogue world and put it in the car and see what it does, and if it doesn\u2019t do what it should do, and that\u2019s a tricky case for everyone in Formula 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you bring correlation from what the digital world tells you into the real world, and that has been a feature [in recent years], and this is the last example of how it tripped us all up.\u201d<\/p>\n
With all attention now on hitting the ground running for the new regulations coming for F1 2026, Wolff confirmed no more upgrades are planned for the Mercedes<\/a> W16 as, \u201ceverything is completely focused and concentrated on next year.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we know that we have a more stable platform that\u2019s going to give us some goodness.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s see how we can optimise tracks in terms of finding the right set-ups and then be as competitive as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n More on Mercedes in F1<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49\u00a0Who is Bradley Lord? Meet Toto Wolff\u2019s trusted Mercedes lieutenant<\/a><\/p>\n