In spite of the strong speed displayed in FP3, Mercedes F1 was not as successful during Qualifying for the 2026 Malaysia round, with Team Principal Toto Wolff unsure about the cause of his team’s difficulties.
A complicated Qualifying for Mercedes F1 ahead of the 2026 Malaysia race
While championship leader Kimi Antonelli had led the third practice session, with Russell in fourth, the pace displayed then was nowhere to be found in the grid setting session. The troubles with the high track temperatures appeared more severe on George Russell’s side of the garage, as the Brit remained out of the top ten in Q1 and only secured a starting P8 for the upcoming race.
Antonelli’s greatest troubles happened in Q2, as the Italian got his first timed lap cancelled for track limits. The Mercedes young talent consequently had to use up another fresh set of soft tyres in order to advance to the final Qualifying segment. Ultimately, Antonelli’s one effort was good enough for P4, around half a second from polesitter Max Verstappen. He starts P3 thanks to Isack Hadjar’s penalty.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff struggled to understand the difference in performance from FP3 into Qualifying at the F1 Malaysia round as he recounted to Sky Sports the main differences in track conditions encountered by his driver duo.
“Very difficult to understand, we have been a little bit caught out on Friday with some car behaviour that we didn’t see all year. You can say it’s very hot and the tarmac is very different to all the tracks. Looks really good in the morning, we seem to have at least with Kimi made a step in understanding. Then, qualifying was a little bit back to what we saw before, just no performance.”
Still coming to grips with the new upgrades introduced on the W17
The Austrian went into further details about the unexpected car issues experienced at the Sepang circuit, highlighting the fact that it is the first time through the entirety of the 2026 F1 season that the car was genuinely off the pace on straights. Red Bull were comfortably faster.
As well as that, chronic understeer was costing them in Turn 2.
“Looks like we are very draggy, it’s the first time that we are losing a lot of time on the straights, especially to Max, and then through the low speed we are not able to turn the car, there’s just too much understeer. So overall things we haven’t seen all year.”
The lack of performance is especially worrying as the the team just introduced a large aerodynamic upgrade package to the W17 right on time for the Malaysia round.
Wolff, adamant about the importance and the expected improvements coming from the upgrade, doesn’t believe the new updates are to blame for the increased difficulties.
However, he reckons that more time and data evaluation will be needed to completely understand how to extract their maximum potential.
“Something else is going on. 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.
“It’s so different, but in any case you’re expecting three tenths to kick in and it looks like three or four or five tenths backwards. First time we miss out on the top three by quite a chunk, but I guess we will find a solution.”
Antonelli’s mistake might make the race more challenging for the Italian
Wolff was additionally not impressed with Antonelli’s Q2 mishap. In fact, it put him at a loss compared to the other drivers running in the top ten as he only had one new set for Q3.
”Not good because in Q2 you know you’re going to get through. So you lose a set in a qualifying that’s so tight where we’re on the back foot, that’s not good.”
In spite of the championship leader securing three race wins and two other additional podiums in the past six races, Wolff is anticipating troubles for Mercedes, and less speed, for the F1 Malaysia race.
In fact, he is rather convinced that the intense heat, combined with the additional tyre degradation, could hamper Antonelli and Russell’s chances of recovery, especially when considering the lack of knowledge with the newly updated W17.
“No, I’m never positive. Even if he would have put it on pole by five tenths I wouldn’t have been exuberant for tomorrow. I don’t know at all what to expect tomorrow from the race with the heat. It could be better, it could be worse. This is now about understanding what the car is doing.”
Wolff concluded his Qualifying debrief by praising the great steps forward implemented by Red Bull over the past few races, which has seen Verstappen and Hadjar amass four podiums in the last three rounds.
“Last weekend they were very close and here better. They’ve done a good step.”
