Mercedes left scrambling for answers after ‘frustrating’ Belgian Grand Prix

Mercedes enjoyed a strong start to the 2025 Formula 1 season.

George Russell, thrust into a leadership role with the departure of Lewis Hamilton, secured a podium finish in four of the first six races of the campaign. Rookie Kimi Antonelli, tasked with filling Hamilton’s spot with the team, finished in the points in five of those race weekends and secured his first F1 pole position during qualifying for the F1 Sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix.

However, their fortunes have waned in recent weeks. While the Canadian Grand Prix was something of a high point for the team, as Russell took the win and Antonelli scored his first F1 podium, they have faltered since then. Russell finished fifth in both Austria and Belgium — and tenth at his home race at Silverstone — while Antonelli has not secured a point since Montreal, and is dealing with what he called a lack of “confidence” during this recent stretch.

Sunday at Spa was another underwhelming result for the team, with Russell finishing fifth and Antonelli down in P16.

“There are not many positives we can take from the weekend here in Spa. Our pace has not been good enough to compete with our usual rivals and that has been frustrating,” said Team Principal Toto Wolff after the Belgian Grand Prix. “We need to quickly understand why that has been. We also need to ensure we execute the race weekend more cleanly, getting the car in a better place from the first session on track.”

Both Russell and Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin confirmed that a “big meeting” is happening at the factory on Monday, as the team looks to reset ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix this upcoming weekend.

“It was pretty underwhelming, to be honest,” said Russell to Sky Sports F1 following the Belgian Grand Prix.

“Because we tend to favour the cooler conditions. So we couldn’t have really asked for better weather for us. But we’ve just had no pace recently. We need to sit down, all of us,” added Russell.

“We’re going to have a big meeting this week with all the designers and engineers. To sort of understand the decisions we’ve made in recent weeks or months. And why we’ve gone backwards. So hoping for some improvements in Hungary.”

Russell went on to note that since a series of upgrades to the W16, the team has taken a step “backwards,” that they need to understand.

“We made a clear change of direction a couple of months ago, and I think it’s been since that point we’ve taken a step backwards,” added the veteran driver.

“It sometimes takes a few races to understand what the real reasons are for that lack of pace, but clearly it seems that we need to revert back to what we had earlier in the season.”

For his part, Shovlin pointed to the change in front-wing regulations as one potential culprit. Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, the sport’s governing body implemented a new technical directive, which limited how much the front wings can flex under aerodynamic load.

While Mercedes enjoyed a dream weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix with the new wing, Shovlin wonders if that may be playing a role.

“What we had earlier in the year was a car that was working well at pretty much every circuit,” said Shovlin to Sky Sports F1.

“We were generally fighting for the second row of the grid, if not the front row. It’s probably true for anyone that the [technical directive] won’t improve stability, but we did have this wing on the car in Montreal and it was fine.

“The fact is that other people are able to balance their cars a bit better. There’s no doubt a solution in there for us. We’re just looking at all the steps that we’ve taken with the car design over the last number of races,” added Shovlin.

“It isn’t just the front wing that’s changed, and I’m sure there’s more that we can learn. That’s what the focus is on over the next few races, trying to pinpoint why we’re getting this entry stability issue.”

The Mercedes engineer believes that they can right the ship ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, the final race before F1’s summer shutdown.

“It’s definitely possible for us to look at changing aspects of the car for Budapest.

“How deep we go will depend on what parts we’ve got around us.

“There’s quite a lot that we’ve changed, so we’ve got a meeting with the drivers [on Monday] to go through some of what we’ve done over the year to try to make sure that our efforts are focused on the right things and not just changing things for the sake of it.”

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle believes that Mercedes will be “furiously evaluating and backtracking” the upgrades made in recent weeks.

“Mercedes had a weekend to forget but George Russell did at least salvage a lonely fifth place 35 seconds off the lead,” wrote Brundle on Monday. “We are used to them going well in such cooler conditions, and it doesn’t seem five minutes since he commanded the Canadian GP, and presumably they’ll be furiously evaluating and backtracking on all the changes made since then.”

The new components are certainly a concern for Mercedes, but the bigger concern might be Antonelli’s self-described confidence problem. While the 18-year-old rookie seemed more upbeat after the race Sunday, he was downright distraught after his elimination in Q1 on Saturday, when he mentioned his lack of confidence.

That led to a visit and a pep talk from the man he replaced at Mercedes.

“[Lewis Hamilton] came to say hi to the team and definitely we had a couple of words,” Antonelli said of Hamilton’s visit. “He was telling me to keep my head up, and that it’s normal to have bad weekends, and just to keep believing. It’s was really nice for me”.

Hamilton then praised Antonelli in the media.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to be doing what he’s doing,” Hamilton said after the Belgian Grand Prix.

“I think he’s been doing fantastic. To be thrown in the deep end at 18 is ... he didn’t even have a driving licence when he first started racing, so.

“I think it’s a lot on someone’s shoulders and I think he’s doing a great job. And he’s got a great group of people around him. He’s got Bono [Hamilton’s former race engineer Peter Bonnington] by his side, he couldn’t have had anyone better.”

As Brundle noted in his post-race column, Mercedes needs to prevent Antonelli from letting “his head spiral.” Perhaps the summer break will aid in that effort, but given his talent, the team needs to make sure his crisis of confidence is short-lived.

Hopefully, Monday’s meeting will help in that effort.