Mercedes were “stung” by their meagre points haul and reliability problems during F1’s triple header, technical director James Allison has said.
The Silver Arrows scored just 18 points across the last thee European races in Italy, Monaco and Spain, a total comfortably lower than chief rivals McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull and two fewer than sixth-placed Racing Bulls too.
It meant they lost second place in the Constructors’ Championship, to Ferrari, for the first time this season.
Unusually, the team were also hit by car unreliability.
Kimi Antonelli retired at Imola due to an issue with his car’s throttle damper assembly, while a power unit failure stopped him in Spain. George Russell’s Monaco weekend, meanwhile, was undone when a wiring loom issue in qualifying left him 14th on the year’s most critical grid.
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George Russell took Natalie Pinkham out to the Monaco circuit in a new AMG hypercar, while also discussing his time with Mercedes
Heading into this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, Allison said the mood at the team had been “a little reflective” in the brief gap between races.
“I guess from Barcelona, there were aspects of the way we approached the weekend, of the performance of the car in very hot track conditions that give us some optimism for the future,” said Allison in Mercedes’ latest race debrief video.
“But we’re all pretty stung by the DNFs and having been through a triple header where we didn’t score at anything like the rate we did in the opening races of the year.
“So, hopefully, good looking forward, but I wouldn’t want to do those three races again like that.”
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Mercedes driver George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen gave their thoughts after the pair collided during Sunday’s race
Reflecting on the triple header, Allison drew a comparison with his favourite childhood book, The World According to Garp.
He explained: “The main character in that book, Garp, he bought his first house on the basis that a light aircraft had crashed into it. He considered the house ‘pre-disastered’, and therefore nothing bad would happen to it in the future.
“So you could look at these triple headers, we’ve definitely been ‘pre-disastered’ with out-of-the-blue DNFs on very mature components that we would never have expected a failure like that.
“So with a bit of luck, we’ll have better fortune in the future.
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Mercedes’ George Russell says his team needs to ‘think quick’ to find a way to make the car faster after finishing seventh at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
“But more seriously, I think the more important thing of these three races were we got the first couple pretty wrong on the way that we set the car up.
“Asked too much of the rear axle, suffered badly as a consequence, and we approached Barcelona with something of a different mindset. And in a track which would have murdered our tyres if we’d gone at it like we did in Imola and Monaco, we actually were a bit more ourselves.
“And so looking forward and knowing that we can do more of that and lean deeper into that in the races ahead, I think that’s a good thing.”
Indeed, given that recent run, Allison is optimistic that a visit to Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve may come at the right time for the team.
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Highlights of qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix
Russell claimed pole position there last year before finishing third after contenting for victory in a topsy-turvy rain-hit race, while Mercedes have qualified with a least one car on the grid’s front two rows on F1’s last 11 visits.
Asked if cooler temperatures in Montreal could play more to their strengths, Allison said: “Well, that may come towards us, of course, if it is cooler.
“But I think that more important than the absolute temperature is just the different nature of the challenge in Montreal. Big braking circuit, a circuit where it’s relatively harder to get the front and rear axle at the right temperature relative to one another.
“And it’s a track where we’ve tended to find our feet relatively well in the past. So I’m looking forward to it. We’ve got one or two new bits to take with us and we’ll see how we get on.”
Antonelli ‘will know he’s got more to find’
The triple header proved particularly disappointing for Antonelli, as the 18-year-old rookie failed to score a point.
While two of those races were wrecked by technical failures on his car when running in the top 10, the Italian was never in contention in Monaco after crashing in Q1.
Allison said: “Kimi’s young and full of all the optimism of youth, but I absolutely know that our failures in this period have taken a few chunks out of Kimi along the way.
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Kimi Antonelli had an in-depth discussion with Ted Kravitz, reflecting on his life growing up, his first season in Formula One with Mercedes and his hopes for the future
“Two DNFs, one caused by a chassis problem, one caused by a PU problem in just three races. That’s a pretty tough pill to swallow.
“Leaving that aside, and Kimi looking in it himself, he will know that he’s got more to find.
“But in amongst that, there’s been a lot of very positive work with him and brilliant experience for him running on a very dynamic track like it was in Barcelona, with the track temperatures pushing up towards 50 degrees and managing soft tyres in those conditions.
“That is just putting experience into him at a very fast rate, and he was handling it pretty well.”
Sky Sports F1’s Canadian GP schedule
Thursday June 12
8pm: Drivers’ Press Conference
Friday June 13
4pm: F1 Academy Practice One
6pm: Canadian GP Practice One (session starts at 6.30pm)
8pm: The F1 Show
9pm: Team Principals’ Press Conference
9.30pm: Canadian GP Practice Two (session starts at 10pm)
11.25pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
Saturday June 14
2.10pm: F1 Academy Race One
5.15pm: Canadian GP Practice Three (session starts at 5.30pm)
7.30pm: F1 Academy Race Two
8.30pm: Canadian GP Qualifying build-up
9pm: CANADIAN GP QUALIFYING
11pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday June 15
3.50pm: F1 Academy Race Three
5.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Canadian GP build-up
7pm: THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX
9pm: Chequered Flag: Canadian GP reaction
10pm: Ted’s Notebook
The 2025 Formula 1 season pauses for breath after the European triple-header before resuming live on Sky Sports F1 with the Canadian Grand Prix from June 13-15. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime.
