Wolff admits Mercedes upgrade backfired as Antonelli and Russell struggle in Bahrain qualifying

Toto Wolff admitted Mercedes is grappling with unexpected car behaviour after a substantial upgrade package brought to Sepang for the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix left the team well off its expected pace. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli qualified fourth and George Russell eighth — a jarring result for a team that has been largely dominant this season.

Antonelli had offered genuine optimism earlier in the day by topping FP3, making the qualifying slump all the more confusing for the team principal. “Very difficult to understand,” Wolff said. “We have been a little bit caught out on Friday with some car behaviour that we didn’t see all year. But you can say it’s very hard that the tarmac is very different to all the tracks.”

Wolff identified two specific problems: excessive drag on the straights — particularly against Max Verstappen — and severe understeer through low-speed corners. “It looks like we are very draggy, because it’s the first time that we’re losing a lot of time on the straights to especially Max. And then through the low speed, Turn 2, we are not able to turn the car. There’s just too much understeer. So overall, things we haven’t seen all year.”

The W17 has been one of the most efficient cars on power-centric circuits in 2026, making the straight-line deficit particularly alarming and focusing suspicion on the new upgrade package. Wolff, however, stopped short of writing it off. “Something else is going on and we have to understand. This is now working through the data and putting our heads together because we still believe that the upgrade works. We just need to understand why not here.”

The abrasive Sepang surface and intense heat are considered possible contributing factors, but the scale of the regression — Wolff estimated the team is three to five tenths slower rather than the three tenths of improvement expected — is what concerns him most. “In any case you’re expecting three-tenths to kick in and it looks like three or four or five-tenths backwards,” he said.

Tyre degradation has been an additional weakness across the Bahrain weekend, compounding the team’s difficulties ahead of Sunday’s race. When asked whether race pace might offer a more encouraging picture, Wolff was blunt: “No, I’m never positive.”