Antonelli: Mercedes still cannot judge its Sepang upgrade

Second place at Sepang gave Mercedes a podium, but no verdict on its latest W17 package. At the post-race FIA press conference on 4 October, Kimi Antonelli said Mercedes still did not know whether the update had made the car faster or slower. He finished 2.307 seconds behind Max Verstappen after 55 laps and said P2 was the maximum the team’s pace could deliver that day.

F1.com’s technical assessment said Mercedes’ first major upgrade since the Canadian Grand Prix, more than three months earlier, had not brought the hoped-for performance boost at Sepang and that the team was examining data to understand why. The package targeted medium-to-high-speed downforce: Mercedes moved the bodywork forward to create more space ahead of the rear wheels and repositioned the cooling channels to form duct-like passages known as “cannons” between the sidepods and engine cover.

The on-track picture was mixed. Motorsport.com reported that Mercedes was satisfied with the update in higher-speed corners, while the W17 as a whole did not suit Sepang, especially in slower turns. In a post-race debrief, deputy team principal Bradley Lord described a possible interaction between the update, track temperature and surface. He said the drivers had to use the throttle to turn the car in slow corners, adding to the tyre-temperature challenge.

Antonelli said Sepang’s rough tarmac and high temperatures had made the package harder to assess. He also recalled Mercedes struggling on very old asphalt earlier in 2026: at Zandvoort, he said, McLaren was much quicker than Mercedes, particularly on the older surface. Pirelli motorsport director Dario Marrafuschi said race-day temperatures were noticeably lower than on previous days and the track remained damp for much of the race after the pre-start downpour.

On 5 October, Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said he was sure most cars at Sepang were outside their ideal operating windows. He said the heat, track roughness and circuit layout might have affected the competitive order. His comments concerned the field as a whole, not a specific diagnosis of Mercedes’ package.

Antonelli expects Singapore to give Mercedes a clearer read on the package and the setup it needs. He hopes the team can extract its full potential there.