Wolff says Mercedes upgrade has yet to meet expectations

Kimi Antonelli put Mercedes’ revised car fourth in Singapore qualifying, but Toto Wolff cautioned against reading too much into the result: the upgrade had not yet brought the car to its intended performance level. Wolff said Mercedes had expected a gain of 0.35 seconds, enough in his view to put the team at the front. He was unsure whether that gain was still available.

Mercedes ran the revised floor and sidepods only on Antonelli’s car, while George Russell used the older version. Russell qualified sixth but was due to start from the back after a grid penalty, a situation Wolff said would make Sunday difficult for the team.

Wolff did identify progress: he said the update had been much harder to work with on Friday and Saturday morning, while qualifying came closer to what Mercedes expected from the car. He said the race would be the next chance to judge the package.