Mercedes duo was left a bit disappointed after facing degradation troubles in F1 Saudi Arabian GP, something they and Toto Wolff didn’t envisage.
After their recent performances, it looked likely that Mercedes may end up on the podium in F1 Saudi Arabian GP. But it was not the case to be. Having started inside the Top 5, George Russell was in prime position when Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri fought it out ahead.
He fancied a go for a brief moment, but it didn’t take long for him to drop off and fall in the clutches of Charles Leclerc behind. The Brit managed to keep his nose ahead after the pit stop, but the Monegasque stretched his stint and had much fresher tyres post his stop to catch and pass Russell.
That mostly sealed the podium for Leclerc, but Russell had to defend from a recovering Lando Norris. With degradation higher than expectation, the McLaren driver made quick work of the Mercedes man to pass him for fourth. The Latter had to settle for fifth in the end in a disappointing outing.
He felt Mercedes would be better in Saudi Arabia than Bahrain, but was opposite in the end. “When you saw how much we dropped off at the end, it was a massive tyre overheating,” said Russell to media. “We managed to hold on quite well at the beginning, and then it was actually quite hard to stay with Max, and then I just fell off the cliff.
“And we knew that was a possibility. It was obviously a disappointing race, but ultimately, had I managed more, I think the result would have been the same. So, we need to understand why it was so bad today, and why, relatively speaking, it was much better in Bahrain. I mean, definitely not satisfied with P5. We’ve had a good run so far.
“It was a very bad day as a team, but I think there’s definitely some understanding to take from that, because we probably didn’t expect to be so competitive in Bahrain, and we probably expected to be more competitive today. So, there is pace in the car, but today was all about tyres, and we didn’t get it right. I was quite surprised that he [Max] didn’t give the position back straight away, to be honest.
“But, yeah, nothing more to say about that,” summed up Russell, who had teammate Antonelli just behind him in sixth, managing to stay clear of Lewis Hamilton. But he was unable to press any further after struggles on the medium tyre in the first stint, which pushed the team to change his strategy and pit him earlier than the desired window.
It forced him to do the management work on the hard compound, which derailed any chances of hustling Russell. “It was not easy, because it was really hot in the car, and the deg was not so big, so it was pretty flat out,” said Antonelli to media. “Yes, this one, I was quite under-balanced, so the front-right really suffered and it completely dropped after few laps.
“That put me in the position to pit earlier than expected but I was happy with management on the hard tyre, definitely the pace in the last 10-15 laps was much stronger and actually quite positive. So definitely good learning out of the next few races. I think it’s a shame, because I lost a lot in the medium, and then on the hard I couldn’t really use that initial pace, because I was just trying to manage.
“Because I had to do more laps than expected. So definitely need to review that scene in order for the future, so it can be better,” summed up Antonelli, as Mercedes team boss Wolff labeled it as the worst performance of the team so far in the 2025 F1 season. He also clarified that there was no tyre trouble for Russell as he noted on the radio.
“It was clearly our worst performance of the year so far,” said Wolff to media. “The pace just dropped away with blistering, overheating tyres and so far we haven’t got an explanation. We saw no land against Ferrari and Max also. So that was an additional negative, that when you manage your expectations of being second quickest.
“And even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve, and it panning out like it did, it just adds to the frustration of the situation. There was no risk there [with Russell]. There was never any risk. We had a band coming off the tyre, there was no integrity risk.”
Here’s how F1 Saudi Arabian GP panned out
