Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has admitted the team is “clueless” after a major upgrade left Kimi Antonelli and George Russell significantly off the pace in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang.
Mercedes appeared to have recovered from a difficult Friday when Antonelli topped Saturday morning’s third practice session by more than three tenths of a second. However, that pace disappeared when qualifying began, with Antonelli taking fourth and Russell only eighth.
The result was particularly concerning because Mercedes had introduced a substantial upgrade package for the weekend. Wolff said the development was expected to make the car several tenths faster but had instead produced the opposite effect.
Mercedes upgrade produces the opposite result
Antonelli had looked like a genuine contender for pole after setting a 1:36.302 in FP3, giving Mercedes confidence that the young Italian could challenge Red Bull and Ferrari later in the day.
Those hopes quickly disappeared in qualifying.
Max Verstappen secured his first pole position of the season for Red Bull, while Ferrari also remained ahead of both Mercedes cars. Antonelli will start third and Russell seventh after Isack Hadjar’s grid penalty is applied, but the performance gap has left Wolff deeply concerned.
Speaking to Sky after qualifying, Wolff described the result as “incredibly disappointing”.
“We brought an update to the car that was supposed to make it a few tenths faster. In the end, however, the opposite happened and the car is now a few tenths slower,” he said.
“We’ve never had such a gap. We have some homework to do.”
Wolff: “We’ve never had such a gap”
The Mercedes boss acknowledged that the team does not yet have a clear explanation for why the upgrade has failed to deliver the expected performance.
“It was never before that an update went so wrong,” Wolff said, adding that the team was currently “at a loss”.
The sudden loss of competitiveness is particularly striking given Antonelli’s performance just hours earlier.
Mercedes had appeared to have found a significant advantage in the conditions during FP3, only for that pace to disappear when qualifying mattered. The contrast has left the team with considerable work to understand before Sunday’s race.
Wolff was also unwilling to suggest that Mercedes should be considered a contender for victory.
“Nothing” currently speaks in favour of Mercedes winning the race on Sunday, the Austrian said.
Mercedes faces difficult race from third and seventh
The grid penalties will move both Mercedes drivers forward by one position, but that does little to disguise the pace deficit shown during qualifying.
Antonelli will therefore start third, while Russell moves up to seventh. Verstappen, meanwhile, will lead the field from pole after Mercedes had appeared to have the upper hand during the final practice session.
The team now has to determine whether the qualifying struggles were caused by the characteristics of the Sepang circuit, the conditions or the new upgrade itself.
For Mercedes, Sunday’s race therefore represents an important opportunity to establish whether the qualifying result was an isolated problem or evidence of a deeper issue with its latest development package.
Why Formula 1 is racing in Sepang
The unusual location of the Bahrain Grand Prix is the result of the 2026 calendar disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
The Bahrain race could not take place as originally scheduled and was subsequently moved to Sepang, bringing Formula 1 back to Malaysia for the first time in nine years.
The return has also produced a relatively inexperienced field at the circuit. Twelve of the 22 drivers entered for the race are making their first Formula 1 appearance at Sepang.
For Mercedes, however, the focus is firmly on the car. After looking dominant in FP3, the team must now understand why its major upgrade produced such a dramatic reversal of fortunes in qualifying.
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