Why Mercedes has been struggling – relatively – in F1 2025

If you look at Formula 1’s 2025 drivers’ standings, you’d be forgiven for thinking Mercedes’ George Russell has a shot at the title. The 27-year-old Briton has been a paragon of consistency thus far, completing every single qualifying session and race – even the sprint ones – in the top five, with four grand prix podiums to his name.

But equally, Russell hasn’t led a single race lap this year. The closest he got was at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where he briefly challenged polesitter Oscar Piastri at the start but ended up a distant runner-up, 15.5 seconds away from victory.

“When it’s about pure pace, that’s qualifying,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff commented. “You put everything down there – what is the car capable of generating in terms of downforce? And we are right in the ballgame.

“But at the end, the points are being given for a race. And the race means also being capable to maintain that pace over a long time, over many laps, and we are not capable of doing that.”

Wolff is not wrong. Over the first three grands prix of the season, the lead Silver Arrow was 0.289s off pole position on average. Mercedes has brought this gap down to 0.116s over the latest three.

Meanwhile, long-run pace does remain a weakness, and the gap to victory in safety-car-less races keeps increasing: 11s in China, 17s in Japan, 27s in Jeddah and 38s in Miami.

“It is simply that we have a really fast car – I believe on a single lap or on a few laps, absolute where it can be – but we’re just not good with the tyres over an extended run,” Wolff admitted. “And McLaren shows how it’s being done. To a degree, I think that Red Bull with Max [Verstappen], they’re managing it better.

“We are solid in what we’re doing, but they are definitely doing an excellent job by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them.”

Wolff also categorically refused to accuse McLaren of being cheeky with regards to the technical regulations; the papaya team has reportedly found a way to prevent the heat from its brakes from increasing its rear tyre temperature out of the working window.

The Austrian insisted the leaders of the Woking-based squad were “good people with integrity”, adding: “I have no doubt that these guys stay within the rules. It’s just really good development. They’ve understood how to manage the tyre much better than everybody else. And in my opinion, it’s totally legit.

“Also, from a team management point of view, when somebody’s doing a better job than you, we should not look at that and say they’re cheating, because that’s not the right attitude anyway. So we just need to become better and eventually not get 30 or 35 seconds [behind] over 55 laps.”

Focusing on tyre management just makes sense for Mercedes, with Wolff deeming it “the biggest differentiator between the top four teams” and explaining this work will be “valid” for next year’s car despite the upcoming technical overhaul in 2026.

“And we are on it, completely on it,” he proclaimed. “It’s not like we are looking at it like a Bambi in front of the headlights. We are on it, we are in there, we are trying to find out, we are experimenting – and we are going to definitely be able to challenge.”