The head of the Mercedes Formula 1 team, Toto Wolff, has defined drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell as “two test drivers” during the Singapore Grand Prix, where they will be working with different specifications of the car.
The Silver Arrows have been the dominant team in the 2026 season, with 11 wins in 16 races. However, Mercedes’ authority was tested by Red Bull’s performance at the Sepang circuit, where Max Verstappen achieved victory from pole position.
Antonelli finished second while Russell was about to finish third before a power unit failure. All this happened during a weekend when Mercedes introduced a significant update for the W17, its first major improvement since Montreal last May.
Despite the update, Mercedes did not manage to extract the maximum performance from the new package, with Red Bull dominating the race. Now, at the Marina Bay circuit, Antonelli will continue with the new version of the W17, while Russell will revert to the previous specification to determine if there is a problem with the upgrades or if it was simply an isolated case.
Wolff commented that introducing a significant update in Baku/Sepang was complicated due to the peculiar conditions of the track, and that this could have influenced performance: “We decided to bring two specifications to Singapore to see what works best, knowing that Singapore is also a unique track”.
The first practice session of the sprint weekend in Singapore showed that Russell was the fastest with a time of 1:32.274, while Antonelli finished seventh, 1.251 seconds slower on medium tires.
Wolff added that, although the new version of the car seems more complicated to handle, it does not necessarily mean it is slower. The stability of the old model may have contributed to its better initial performance. The data collected during this session will be crucial in preparing the team for the 2027 season and finding the best direction in car development.
Mercedes, which aims to achieve its first double championship since 2020, is evaluating whether it is better to continue with small updates that facilitate problem identification, or to only make major updates under the $215 million spending cap.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
