Mercedes’ Current Struggles: What’s Going Wrong and What’s Next for 2025

Hello, everyone! I’m James, and welcome back to another video. Today, we’ll be discussing some recent updates on the performance of Mercedes, particularly in Formula 1, as we head deeper into the 2025 season. If you enjoy the video, don’t forget to leave a like and subscribe for more Formula 1 content. Also, feel free to follow me on X at @JamesPittling. Now, let’s dive into what’s been happening at Mercedes recently.

A Rocky Start to 2025

At the start of 2025, Mercedes appeared to be in relatively good shape. George Russell secured multiple podium finishes, including a win in Canada, a major highlight in the early rounds. However, as the season progressed, things began to take a turn for the worse. Mercedes’ performance, which was solid in the initial races, has since dipped significantly.

One of the more concerning results came at the Belgian Grand Prix, a track where Mercedes was expected to perform well due to cooler weather conditions, which tend to suit their car better. Yet, George Russell finished the race in a disappointing fifth place, almost 30 seconds behind the McLaren drivers, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. He was also nearly 15 seconds adrift of the battle for third between Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Russell expressed his frustrations post-race, telling Sky F1, “It was pretty underwhelming, to be honest, because we tend to favor the cooler conditions. So, we couldn’t have really asked for better weather for us, but we’ve just had no pace recently. We need to sit down, all of us, and have a big meeting with all the designers and engineers to understand the decisions we’ve made in recent weeks or months and why we’ve gone backwards. Hopefully, we can make improvements in Hungary.”

Upgrades and the Core Issue

Over the past few weeks, Mercedes has introduced several upgrades to the W16 car in hopes of improving performance, but so far, these updates have not yielded the desired results. It appears that the core issue lies with rear instability on corner entry, a problem both Russell and his teammate, rookie Kimmy Antonelli, are facing.

The team suspects that recent developments to the car have put it in a less optimal position, making it harder to extract the performance needed for the top positions. Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, noted, “We had early on in the year a car that was working well at pretty much every circuit. We were generally fighting for the second row of the grid, if not the front row. It’s quite likely something that we’ve changed on the car, and we just need to recover a bit. We need to get back to a baseline where it’s working more normally.”

This statement highlights the internal investigation Mercedes is undergoing to pinpoint what went wrong with their car setup, and why they’ve taken a step back after a promising start to the season.

Kimmy Antonelli’s Struggles and Development

Another Mercedes driver who has struggled recently is Kimmy Antonelli, who had an impressive start to his rookie year. In Australia, Antonelli made a remarkable comeback from 16th place to finish 4th, and he also secured the sprint pole in Miami. His podium finish in Canada was another high point for the young driver.

However, since then, Antonelli’s form has severely dropped, with multiple retirements and finishes outside of the points. His poor performance in Belgium, where he finished only 16th, is indicative of the struggles he’s been facing recently. Unlike his teammate Russell, Antonelli lacks the vast amount of Formula 1 experience that helps Russell navigate through difficult situations.

Shovlin discussed this, saying, “George is leading on his many years of experience in an F1 car to try and make the most of a difficult car. Kimmy hasn’t got that to drop back on, and that’s probably why you’ve seen a bit of a shift in his results recently. But again, it goes back to the fact that we’ve got to solve that problem because there’s still a long way to go this year. Kimmy’s had a few tough weekends, but he’s getting a lot of engineering support from Bono and the engineers on that side of the garage.”

The team is aware that they must solve the issue with the car’s weaknesses, rather than just attributing the performance drops to Antonelli’s inexperience. The overall goal is to get both drivers back to their best form.

Constructors’ Championship: A Tough Fight Ahead

The struggles of Mercedes on the track have put them in a difficult position in the Constructors’ Championship. While they remain in the fight, they’ve fallen behind Ferrari, who sits in second place. Mercedes is now 28 points adrift of Ferrari, and the way things are going, that gap could widen even further.

Red Bull, who has dominated the season so far with Max Verstappen at the helm, has also started to show strength from their other drivers. At the Belgian Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda delivered an impressive performance, qualifying in 7th place. Although Tsunoda was unable to finish in the points due to a poor strategy, his performance shows that Red Bull could have more drivers competing for the top spots. This will put even more pressure on Mercedes if they don’t manage to find a solution to their performance issues soon.

Contract Situations and Future Stability

Beyond on-track performance, Mercedes is also facing an important year off-track. Both George Russell and Kimmy Antonelli’s contracts are set to expire at the end of 2025, and while there’s been speculation about possible moves, it seems increasingly likely that both drivers will stay with the team.

Max Verstappen’s name had been mentioned in connection with a potential move to Mercedes, but it’s now expected that he will remain at Red Bull for the 2026 season. This leaves Mercedes focused on securing Russell and Antonelli for the future.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has made it clear that continuing with Russell and Antonelli is the team’s absolute priority for next season. In fact, there’s been an update on Russell’s contract situation. Sky Sports News reported that Russell is in talks for a multi-year contract extension, which would keep him with the team until at least the end of the 2027 season. Wolff hinted that a deal could be agreed before the summer break, which follows the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Wolff also spoke to Sky F1 about Russell’s maturity as a driver, stating, “As a driver, he’s so mature and stable, and I don’t think that makes any difference on performance. On the contrary, I would wish to have him in a safe place a little bit earlier. We haven’t managed to do that, but I’m optimistic that he’s going to sleep well over the summer break.”

Conclusion: The Road Ahead for Mercedes

As Mercedes continues to grapple with performance issues, there’s no denying that 2025 is proving to be a challenging season. With problems related to the car’s setup, instability, and both drivers’ struggles to find their rhythm, it’s clear that the team must act quickly to get back on track.

Despite the setbacks, there’s still hope for improvement, particularly with ongoing talks around contracts and long-term stability within the team. As the season progresses, Mercedes will need to focus on solving their car’s weaknesses while maintaining confidence in their talented drivers. With plenty of races left in the year, we’ll be watching closely to see if Mercedes can recover and close the gap in the Constructors’ Championship.

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