For the first time in 2025, Mercedes took to the top step of the podium as George Russell won the F1 Canadian GP on Sunday, with Kimi Antonelli backing him up by getting his first Formula 1 podium in 3rd as the team led by Toto Wolff had an almost perfect day.
Ever since these ground effect era cars got introduced in 2022, the performance level of Mercedes has been extremely unpredictable. 2024 was a prime example of that. They came alive mid-season with three wins, and they dominated in Las Vegas as well. However, at other times they were relatively nowhere.
It has been a similar story again in 2025. After a very strong start as George Russell finished on the podium in Australia, China, Bahrain and Miami, plus top 5 finishes in Japan and Saudi Arabia, things started to go south after that.
At Jeddah, the signs of rear tyre overheating struggles returned, and it continued big time in Imola. Spain was a pretty average performance by their lofty standards, too.
In Montreal last year, Mercedes should have won the race as they had the fastest car. However, they ended up getting beaten by the outstanding Max Verstappen, with Lando Norris also having a fine drive to cross the line in 2nd.
Toto Wolff on why Mercedes returned to the front at the F1 Canadian GP
Speaking in his F1 Canadian GP post-race print media session, Wolff explained the reasons as to why Mercedes could suddenly look after their tyres so well in hot conditions.
“Well, I thought it’s when I’m wearing a pullover, there’s some kind of correlation with our performances, because that means it’s cold,” the Austrian quipped.
“And today, 50 degrees track temperature, and we’ve been dominant.
“We’ve had some things changing on the car, we have a new rear suspension. I’m really happy how the team has managed that, the trackside team, and also back at the factory how these things have been coming onto the car.
“But I guess you need to look at the track layout. Montreal was always good to us.
“It lacks the typical high-speed corners where we suffer more in the heat. That’s one, and number two it is quite a smooth asphalt here, which is less abrasive and therefore less damaging to our car that suffers from rear tyre degradation and overheating.”
Mercedes and the new F1 rear suspension they have
Mercedes introduced a new rear suspension at Imola, but it got taken off for the following two rounds. It returned in Montreal, and good results followed.
Throughout the ground effect era, all teams have struggled with development as gains have been hard to come by in-season as upgrades or updates have not worked on a regular basis.
While a lot of factors led to Mercedes winning the F1 Canadian GP, Toto Wolff says important learnings can be taken from the new suspension and whether it can help the team start to be more consistent.
“I think we brought the new rear geometry for the particular problem that we had with the surface overheating.
“We weren’t quite sure about the results at Imola, because they were worse than we expected. Taking it off I think was the right thing to do.
“Bringing it on here, because hopefully the development direction is correct. In these kinds of regulations, you never know whether you land development or whether you don’t.
“Correlation has been difficult, particularly for us, but for many other teams.
“I think there are other factors at play here. The track layout is different. The asphalt is different.
“There is never one magic solution that makes the car from a podium car to a dominant winner.
“But the more data set we have, the more we learn. Also from this weekend, the better we will understand.”
