Mercedes’ F1 drivers delivered in Canada, proving what’s possible with the right car

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MONTREAL — Cheers roared from the crowd at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve as George Russell carefully climbed onto the front of his car, throwing his fists in the air before he hit his now-iconic T pose (twice).

A few feet away, in parc fermé, team members congratulated the other half of the Mercedes duo, Kimi Antonelli. The young rookie has shone this year, navigating the balancing act of completing school and competing in Formula One. Sunday’s third-place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix marked his first podium, making the Italian driver the third-youngest podium finisher in F1 history.

Russell and Antonelli embraced in the pit lane, a moment that many people likely didn’t expect given Mercedes’ recent performance and the raised temperatures on Sunday. The Silver Arrows endured a rough tripleheader before the Montreal event, scoring 18 points across those three races and dealing with multiple technical issues. Heading into the Canadian Grand Prix, expectations were high for Mercedes to perform better due to the cooler temperatures typical of this race and how strong the team appeared here in 2024. Russell duly secured pole position again, but Sunday’s temperatures were predicted to be hotter — a Mercedes weakness — with the race occurring earlier than qualifying.

Yet, Mercedes thrived on Sunday, securing its first win of the season with Russell on the podium’s top step. It’s still unlikely that the Silver Arrows will challenge McLaren for the constructors’ championship, barring more chaotic moments such as the Oscar Piastri-Lando Norris collision, but it does give hope for the team’s future. When it has a car that can compete, Mercedes has a driver duo that can extract the performance.

“As a team, we’ve been performing so well this year. Up until the last tripleheader, we’d maximized every single race weekend, whether, you know, that was the P2 in Bahrain or the other podiums we had,” Russell said. “But coming into Canada, we knew we did have the potential to fight for pole and for the race win, and, ultimately, it came down to that quali lap yesterday. There was obviously not much movement in terms of positions shuffling around, but I’m really pleased with the job.”

Why was Mercedes strong?

The Silver Arrows continued to level up throughout each session type across the weekend, going from a fairly good three practice sessions to a strong qualifying outing to a stellar race controlled by Russell. It wasn’t a lucky run. In a race in which tires were key — although not to the degree they were at Barcelona last time out — Mercedes seemed to unlock something within its car.

The team reintroduced a new rear suspension during the Canadian GP weekend, after initially parking it following its Imola debut last month. There was uncertainty around its performance during the Emilia-Romagna GP weekend, given how Russell and Antonelli struggled with pace, so Mercedes switched back to the original suspension for Monaco and Spain. After studying it a bit more at the factory, the team brought the new rear suspension back for Montreal.

Mercedes brought a new rear suspension to Montreal (Clive Rose/Getty Images)

“We brought the new rear geometry for that particular problem that we had, the rear (tire) surface overheating, and we weren’t quite sure about the results in Imola because they were worse than we expected,” Wolff said on Sunday. “And then taking it off, I think, was the right thing to do and bringing it on here because hopefully the development direction is correct.

“In these kinds of regulations, you never know whether you land development, particularly for us, but for many other teams.”

That being said, Wolff does believe other factors are at play with Mercedes’ performance being so good in Canada, such as the track’s layout and how the asphalt does not overwork the tires compared to other tracks, which brought the rest closer to McLaren. Russell had commented post-race how the tarmac was “very smooth,” adding that his rear tires didn’t overheat despite Sunday’s warmer track temperatures. Given the number of low-speed corners at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, the tires weren’t under too much stress. High-speed corners tend to be where Mercedes struggles with the hotter temperatures.

“I think we expected a bit more tire overheating considering the track temperature, but we’re under no illusions that this really suited the strengths of our car the same way as it did last year,” the Briton said. “But for the majority of the circuits, we know it’s a bit of a challenge, and that’s why this is the first weekend both of us are on the podium.”

Naturally, Mercedes will need to gather more data to better understand the car’s performance and what all played into its strong outing in Montreal. Austria’s Red Bull Ring is a different track layout to Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, and Wolff is “never confident” Mercedes can repeat the performance with both cars in the coming weeks “because the swings in performance are still there. We’ve seen it last year that on some tracks, it wasn’t even close to who was second, but we dominated throughout the weekend and that’s a little bit (of a) pattern we have seen here.”

Wolff said on Sunday, “There is never one magic solution that makes the car go from a, let’s say, best-case podium car to a dominant winner.”

The rise of Mercedes’ juniors

It had been more than 200 days since a Mercedes driver last stood on the top step of a podium, which was Russell bringing home the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix victory. Throughout the course of the 2025 season, the Briton has largely been quietly consistent, maximizing what he can from the car. And Sunday’s grand prix provided him with a redemption opportunity.

This year’s Canadian Grand Prix rang a similar note as the previous year’s race at times, such as Russell securing pole position once again ahead of Verstappen. But Russell dropped to third during the 2024 edition of the race as the grid navigated mixed weather conditions. He described it as “a victory lost.”

The 2025 grand prix, though, was more straightforward. Russell held off Verstappen and controlled the race from lights out. After the race, the Mercedes driver said he didn’t feel under much stress with the Dutchman, who is one penalty point away from a race ban and collided with Russell last time out in Spain, in his mirrors.

“To be honest, for the last couple of weeks, obviously, there’s lots of noise going on after what happened in Spain. But from my side, you put it to one side, and you know that if you make a good start, you get into a groove. I knew I had potentially the fastest car today. You’ve got to dial into that and put all of the additional noise to one side.”

Challenging moments did arise, such as when Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris used their offset strategy to cycle to the lead and briefly looked like pulling off an audacious one-stopper. But Russell thrived in clean air, building a gap whenever he could. He said, “It wasn’t dead easy,” Russell said, “but I felt confident in myself and the car. I was keeping a close eye on how Kimi was getting on, and on the TVs (the big screens that line the track), and seeing Lando and Oscar closing down.”

Antonelli and Russell are paying off Mercedes’ trust (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

Antonelli endured a rough tripleheader, recording two DNFs and crashing during Monaco GP qualifying, but he managed to convert a fourth-place start in Canada into a third-place finish after passing Piastri at the start. The Italian driver then set his sights on putting pressure on Verstappen and looked set to be a threat before the Red Bull driver (twice) dove into the pits. During the last stint, Antonelli did push too hard behind Verstappen, degrading his front left tire. And this led to Piastri starting to gain from fourth.

“I was just hoping for the race to finish, to be honest,” Antonelli said about what he was thinking in the final laps. “I was even looking at the screen, counting the laps because it was very stressful. In the last stint, I pushed a bit too hard behind Max and eventually degraded the front left. The last few laps were a struggle, especially seeing Oscar getting closer and closer in the DRS range. At one point, he even tried to attempt the overtake in Turn 1. It took a lot of effort.”

When speaking with Sky Sports, Wolff described Antonelli’s podium finish as “a team achievement.” Similar to Russell, the Italian driver was a Mercedes junior and joined the program when he was 11 years old. Wolff recalled Antonelli standing in the Mercedes garage, but unable to see the screens due to his height. But he’s continued to thrive, developing over the years and becoming a standout F1 rookie.

And then there’s the case of Russell, whose contract with the team expires at the end of the year. He revealed on Sunday that he isn’t speaking with other squads and his “intentions are to stay with Mercedes,” a team he continues to show loyalty to. “Ultimately, there are two seats for every race team,” he said. “I knew if I continued to perform as I’m doing, my position would not be under threat whatsoever. So, I feel in a good place. We’re in no rush to do contract negotiations. We want to win together.

“Especially Kimi and I being team-mates now – we’re getting a result like (Sunday), both junior drivers from Mercedes, we’re both doing the job in terms of performance. Why would you want to change something that’s working?”

Wolff said to Sky Sports that Mercedes has “never doubted his speed, never doubted his capability, on winning races and winning championships.” To the written media, the team principal indicated there is a timeline for when they want to settle the contract, and “it isn’t dependent (on) whether he wins a race, whether he performs, because we know he can.”

After the Canadian Grand Prix, round 10 of the 24-race weekend calendar, the top four drivers are covered by 62 points. Russell not only took 13 points out of Oscar Piastri’s lead, but Norris also did not score after crashing into his teammate. The gap between third-place Verstappen and Russell is 19 points, just a few points closer than the Dutchman’s gap to second-place Norris.

“I don’t really know how Max and I are so close to those two because they clearly have the most dominant car. I think the two of us have been very consistent and getting the maximum result from our packages week in, week out,” Russell said on Sunday. “But I can’t imagine them to continue throwing away points in the manner they’re doing. Of course, we hope that continues to be the case, but I don’t foresee us getting in the championship fight through pure pace, as Lando did last year.

“We’ll only be there if results like today continue or things like today continue to happen.”

(Top photo: George Russell and Kimi Antonelli: by Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty Images)

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