Mercedes drops rear-axle upgrade for good: ‘It tripped us all up’

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed that the Silver Arrows outfit will permanently discard its most recent rear suspension upgrade after it introduced unintended instability into the W16’s performance – a flaw that undermined confidence and pace across multiple races.

The admission comes after a promising Hungarian Grand Prix, where George Russell secured his sixth podium of the season with a late overtake on Charles Leclerc, and rookie Kimi Antonelli scored points for the first time in four races, finishing P10.

The result followed Mercedes’ decision to revert to an older suspension configuration, having identified the May upgrade as the root of their recent struggles.

“I think that we tried to solve a problem with an Imola upgrade, with a mechanical upgrade,” Wolff explained.

“That may have not solved an issue but it made something, let something else creep into the car and that was an instability that basically took all confidence from the drivers and it took us a few races to figure that out.”

While the team momentarily believed the upgrade had delivered results – particularly after Russell’s surprise victory in Montreal – Wolff said it ultimately gave them false hope.

“Obviously, also misled a little bit by the Montreal win, we think maybe that's not so bad and we came to the conclusion it needs to go off, it went off and the car is back to solid form,” he said.

A “Bin-bound” Rear Axle and Lessons Learned

Wolff was blunt about the fate of the problematic component.

“That newer rear-axle will be ending in a bin somewhere,” he confirmed, underlining how disappointing the development had been for the Brackley-based outfit.

“Upgrades are here to bring performance and there's a lot of simulations and analysis that goes into the parts of the car,” Wolff said.

“And then they're just utterly wrong and you need to go back to the analogue world and put it in the car and see what it does and if it doesn't do what it should do and that's a tricky case for everyone in Formula 1.

“How do you bring correlation from what the digital world tells you into the real world and that has been a feature, and this is the last example of how it tripped us all up.”

The episode has served as a cautionary tale for Mercedes as they navigate the complexities of modern F1 development. The misstep, while costly, has now prompted the team to close the door on further upgrades for the W16.

• Read also: Wolff confirms Russell’s future after Hungarian GP podium

“There’s no more upgrades,” Wolff confirmed. “Everything is completely focused and concentrated on next year. Now we know that we have a more stable platform that’s going to give us some goodness.

“Let’s see how we can optimise tracks in terms of finding the right set-ups and then be as competitive as we can.”

Though Mercedes may have stumbled with its Imola upgrade, Hungary has offered a glimpse of what’s still possible – provided they don’t lose sight of the fundamentals.

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