Mercedes arrived in Malaysia for Round 16 of the 2026 F1 season with a new upgrade package on the W17, as well as both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli experiencing the circuit for the first time.
Max Verstappen topped both FP1 and the early stages of FP2, while Leclerc ultimately ended Friday fastest after switching to soft tyres. Russell finished seventh in FP2 and Antonelli eighth as the team admitted the car was not yet in the right setup window.
Deputy Team Principal and Chief Communications Officer Bradley Lord, alongside Russell, spoke after the day’s running.
Mercedes’ upgrades and the challenge of Round 16 of the 2026 F1 season in Malaysia
Lord confirmed the upgrades had performed as expected and that both drivers had already noticed a difference in the high-speed corners. He drew comparisons to Hungary as a circuit where Mercedes proved to be less competitive, given Sepang’s medium and high-speed character, but was clear that tyre management would be the defining factor across the weekend.
“Yeah, obviously, everything’s working as expected. Drivers have said they can feel the difference in the high-speed corners. And then the competitive picture here, on a circuit with much more medium and high-speed content, I think looks more like a Hungary sort of picture than maybe it did last weekend in Baku,” stated Lord.
“So the tyres are having a very hard time, it’s very hot out there. They’re overheating on surfaces and the bulk temperature’s hot as well. And so whoever gets on top of that challenge best is going to prosper this weekend.”
Both Russell and Antonelli were driving the circuit for the first time at Round 16 of the 2026 F1 season in Malaysia. Lord said the drivers were enjoying it but acknowledged there was still work to do on the single lap before qualifying.
“Yeah, they’re both enjoying the circuit. George just came on the radio and said this circuit’s really cool. So they’re enjoying the challenge, there’s no doubt about that. And then we’ve just got fine-tuning to do, particularly on the single lap. They said the long run felt OK, but on the single lap Kimi was certainly talking about too much understeer. And it’s just not quite come together yet for either of them on that lap. There’s either a little lock here or running wide there, so hopefully we can tidy all of that up into tomorrow and qualifying.”
Lord on Mercedes’ race strategy at Malaysia
Asked about tyre degradation and cooling, Lord pointed to a two-stop strategy as the baseline at Round 16 of the 2026 F1 season in Malaysia. Three stops remained a possibility given the high wear rates on the old, abrasive tarmac. He identified lap one in qualifying and end-of-stint pace as two critical factors heading into the race.
“Yeah, car cooling-wise I think that’s reasonably well understood. It is going to be high degradation, it is going to be relatively high wear as well on a very open, old tarmac. It’s clear that a baseline strategy is two stops, it could even push to more than that. We’ve seen plenty of three-stoppers here in the past, and I’m sure the strategists up and down the pit lane will be looking at that overnight too. For the drivers, it’s going to be a single-lap tyre in qualifying, and making sure you hit lap one is going to be really important. And then whoever is best able to manage that degradation and have a good end of stint pace is likely to do well on Sunday.”
Russell on driving in Malaysia for the first time in his F1 Career
Russell said driving the circuit for the first time was a highlight of the day. He was direct about the tyre degradation, describing it as the dominant challenge for every team in Malaysia.
“It was a, well firstly it was great to be driving this circuit for the first time, I’ve never driven it before. But with these conditions there’s huge amounts of tyre degradation, so that’s the thing that is trumping everything for everybody right now and we just need to try and get on top of that,” Russell stated.
Russell on Mercedes’ upgrades and race pace in 2026 F1 Malaysia
Asked about the upgrades and whether the team had made progress on set-up, Russell was candid. He said it was difficult to isolate the upgrade’s true performance gain in conditions as demanding as Sepang, and acknowledged the car was not yet in the right window.
“Well I think when you bring an upgrade to any circuit it’s difficult to know what your pure performance is and what it isn’t. I think if we had our new car last week we would have said things were absolutely incredible and I think if we had our old version today I don’t think things would have been much different either. So I think we just don’t have the car set up in the right window, that has nothing to do with the upgrades and we have to just do a bit of work overnight to try and improve the tyre degradation.”
Russell also gave an early read on the race pace picture, pointing to Verstappen’s single-lap pace and McLaren’s long-run strength as the benchmarks to beat.
“I think at the moment Verstappen is looking the quickest in a single lap and McLaren are looking quickest in the long runs,” Russell concluded.
