Mercedes emerged as the team to beat during the Canadian Grand Prix’s Sprint Qualifying, with George Russell taking the top spot ahead of his teammate, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. However, despite this impressive result, team principal Toto Wolff admitted that he was not fully satisfied with the W17’s overall pace, believing that the car should have delivered an even larger advantage.
The Silver Arrows introduced an updated package in Montreal, which made them appear more competitive over a single lap. Although Russell and Antonelli secured pole position for the Sprint, Wolff stressed that the margin over Ferrari, McLaren and Max Verstappen was much smaller than expected.
Speaking after the session, Wolff acknowledged the strong result, but said that Mercedes had hoped for more.
“It’s always like this; you always expect a little more,” he explained. “I didn’t like our speed today. Everything is new. I expected one or two tenths better, but we’ll see tomorrow.”
The Austrian also referenced Lewis Hamilton’s qualifying run, suggesting that an error at turn 10 had prevented the Ferrari driver from matching the pace set by Mercedes.
“If Lewis hadn’t made that mistake, he would have done a time like ours,” Wolff added.
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Mercedes upgrades deliver immediate response after Miami
Although the Canadian weekend is still in its early stages, Mercedes already appears to have addressed some of the issues that arose after Miami. The revised aerodynamic package looked effective throughout Friday, particularly in qualifying trim, with the W17 showing improved balance and consistency.
Nevertheless, Wolff remained cautious about drawing long-term conclusions from one session.
“We’re in first place, but not by a big margin. We have to be happy with that,” he said. ‘We had the fastest package today, but we have to keep pushing tomorrow too.”
The main threats to Mercedes appear to come from Ferrari and McLaren, with Wolff expecting the competitive order to remain extremely tight for the rest of the weekend.
“I’m afraid of Ferrari and McLaren too,” he admitted. “Ultimately, it’s always these three teams, along with Max Verstappen.”
The sprint start remains Mercedes’ biggest concern
Despite their qualifying dominance, the team still sees the race start as a potential weakness ahead of Saturday’s sprint. The team has spent recent weeks focusing heavily on launch procedures and electronics calibration after experiencing inconsistent starts earlier this season.
Wolff confirmed that significant changes have been made behind the scenes.
“We’ve changed a lot of things, especially small details on the electronics,” he explained. “The starts we saw today were solid, but not extraordinary.”
This could be crucial in Montreal, where overtaking has proven difficult unless drivers can stay within DRS range. If Russell and Antonelli maintain their positions at the start, Mercedes may be hard to beat over the sprint distance.
Wolff also emphasised that the Sprint itself is only part of the bigger picture.
“We’ll do more testing. It will be important to understand how the Sprint goes tomorrow, but the real race is on Sunday. The Sprint is a baby race.”
Ferrari and McLaren are still searching for answers
Behind Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari experienced very different qualifying outcomes. McLaren secured a place on the second row, while Ferrari struggled to get the best out of the soft tyre in SQ3.
According to Hamilton, Ferrari experimented with a setup direction that the team had never tried before, and the early signs were encouraging. However, the Scuderia failed to achieve the same improvement between the medium and soft compounds as McLaren did.
While Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris dramatically improved in the final segment, Ferrari only gained around a tenth of a second, leaving both red cars vulnerable heading into the Sprint.
This challenge is made even greater by the fact that Ferrari will line up behind four Mercedes-powered cars, meaning that track position will be especially important in the opening laps.
Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing appeared unusually subdued. Max Verstappen and the RB22 lacked pace on Friday and will start from the fourth row. The team are expected to make setup changes before the rest of the weekend.
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