Mercedes Upgrade Backfires at Malaysia GP, Leaving Wolff Perplexed

Toto Wolff has expressed surprise that Mercedes’ major upgrade package for the Bahrain Grand Prix appears to have taken the team backwards, following a disappointing qualifying session.

Despite dominating the 2026 season, Mercedes introduced far fewer upgrades than their leading rivals, creating high expectations for their first major package since May.

The Silver Arrows arrived in Malaysia – the event’s new host following Middle‑East tensions – on the back of three consecutive race wins, and most expected that momentum to continue with the new upgrades.

Instead, championship leader Kimi Antonelli finished only fourth, with teammate George Russell eighth, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took a dominant pole position. Both Mercedes drivers will gain a grid spot after third‑place Isack Hadjar received a penalty.

Wolff told Sky Sports F1: “Very difficult to understand. We have been a little bit caught out on Friday with some car behaviour that we didn’t see all year, but then you can say it’s very hot and the tarmac is different to all the (other) tracks.”

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It looked promising in final practice; we believed we had made progress, particularly with Kimi.

However, qualifying reverted to the poor performance we observed earlier.

It appears we have excessive drag, losing significant time on straights, especially to Max.

At low speeds the car is untractable, suffering severe understeer – issues not encountered earlier in the season.

Max Verstappen claimed his first pole of the season by a commanding margin, leaving Kimi Antonelli half a second adrift and George Russell another few tenths behind.

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Despite the extreme heat and atypical surface at Sepang creating unique conditions, Wolff remained alarmed by the timing data.

“There must be something else going on, and we need to figure it out,” he continued. “We’re analysing the data and working together because we still believe the upgrade works; we just can’t explain why it’s not effective here.

“The situation is so different in Malaysia, yet we expected a gain of around three tenths, but the car appears to be three to five tenths slower.”

It is puzzling, but we are confident a solution will be found.

‘Affecting us more than others’

George Russell entered Malaysia confident after his standout weekend victory in Azerbaijan, but has been unable to replicate that form.

The gap to his teammate was especially disheartening given Russell had two laps in Q3 compared to Antonelli’s single attempt, after the latter incurred a track‑limit penalty that consumed an extra set of tyres.

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Russell told Sky Sports F1: “We seemed fine in first practice, but we haven’t made any progress since.”

“The circuit is very tough on the tyres – the surface is broken up and extremely rough, and the heat is brutal, putting the tyres under extreme stress.”

“For some reason, it appears to be affecting us far more than the other teams.”

Antonelli said: “The mistake was unfortunate, but with a clean qualifying and no track‑limit penalty, P2 or P3 might have been possible – one set in Q3 is always tough, especially as the track cools.”

“Max performed incredibly well and was very quick. Ferrari also made a significant improvement compared to FP3.”

“Overall, we can be relieved it wasn’t worse, and we’ll focus on tomorrow’s race.”

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