Mercedes plots Malaysia upgrade to reignite qualifying charge

Mercedes has spent much of the 2026 F1 season sitting comfortably atop the championship, but Andrew Shovlin has confirmed that the Silver Arrows is preparing another push – with a significant update due in Malaysia aimed at restoring its qualifying edge.

The Brackley outfit still holds a formidable 145-point advantage over Ferrari in the constructors’ standings, despite having resisted the temptation to unleash a major development package since its Montreal upgrade in May.

Instead, Mercedes has largely relied on smaller, circuit-specific tweaks while Ferrari and McLaren have continued to bring more substantial developments to their cars. That strategy has done little to derail its season, but the gap at the sharp end has undeniably tightened.

The team swept the opening six races of the year, yet has taken only four wins from the subsequent eight events, with Ferrari and McLaren each claiming two victories during that spell.

And while Kimi Antonelli has delivered back-to-back wins in Monza and Madrid and strengthened his grip on the Drivers’ championship, Mercedes has not put a car on pole since the Italian’s qualifying triumph at Spa in July. Three of the four qualifying sessions since then have been topped by Lando Norris.

Now, with the championship entering its final phase, Mercedes is preparing to answer back.

Malaysia beckons with a fresh package

The next real opportunity comes in Malaysia on October 2-4, with Sepang returning to the F1 calendar after a lengthy absence. And Shovlin has revealed that the team is deliberately holding its next meaningful development salvo for the Asian venue.

Baku, meanwhile, is unlikely to see much in the way of new hardware, although Mercedes expects its current package to suit the Azerbaijan circuit’s unusually demanding blend of low drag and slow-speed corners.

Speaking on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast, Shovlin said: “We haven't got much new coming to Baku, but actually that's a circuit that's more about drag than downforce.

“So the car was good in Monza, hopefully it will work well in Baku. But, you need a car that can have a good straight line speed.

“There's other things, though, you need in Baku, like the sort of street circuit nature, almost that Monaco-esque being able to deal with the low speed, keeping all the wheels on the ground.

“And then the updates, well, they're going to come Malaysia onwards and hopefully we'll make a decent step.

“I don't think we're going to be out front by miles, but hopefully we'll be back into a position where we can really go into qualifying, knowing that we're fighting for pole.”

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That final objective is particularly revealing.

Mercedes has hardly forgotten how to win. Antonelli's recent victories in Italy and Spain have kept the team firmly in control of the championship, but qualifying has become a much less predictable affair after its extraordinary opening run.

The Silver Arrows secured pole at each of the first 10 rounds, only for that advantage to evaporate as rivals gradually closed the performance gap.

The margins have become razor thin

Shovlin believes the changing picture is partly down to the wildly different demands imposed by the 2026 calendar. A car that excels at Monza, with its emphasis on low drag and straight-line efficiency, cannot simply be expected to dominate a very different venue such as Madrid.

That has made extracting the last few tenths increasingly difficult — and increasingly important.

“Early in the season, we tended to go thinking, we have a car that if we do a really good job, it should be on pole,” added Shovlin.

“We should be fighting for a race win. Whereas now the margin between finishing first and finishing sixth is one or two tenths and it's difficult to predict because Monza is a unique track.

“It needs a car that's quite slippy with low drag and then new circuit like Madring couldn't be more different. But we just focus on getting the most out of the car and if we win, awesome.”

That leaves Mercedes with a tantalising prospect heading into the autumn: the team already has the fastest car often enough to control the championship, but its Malaysia upgrade could give the W17 another dose of qualifying firepower.

Shovlin is careful not to promise another return to the domination of the season’s opening races. But if the new package delivers the “decent step” Mercedes is hoping for, the battle for pole could suddenly look very different.

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