Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff expressed his disappointment with the team`s showing at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, describing it as their `worst performance` of the 2025 season so far. Neither George Russell nor Kimi Antonelli were able to contend for podium positions.
Russell started the race from third place but gradually fell back as the event progressed, despite having gone into Sunday expecting to challenge for the lead. After his pit stop for hard tyres, the British driver lost a significant 20 seconds, ultimately finishing 27 seconds behind race winner Oscar Piastri.
Russell highlighted the tyres as the main issue: George Russell: “It was all about the tyres. They were massively overheating… I was pushing hard to stay with Max [Verstappen] at the beginning of the second stint but I knew I wasn`t able to hold on. We fell off a cliff at the end. I was dropping a second per lap in the last 15 laps. We just didn`t have the pace and even if I managed more, I would have been fifth. Finishing fifth on a bad day, we accept it, but we need to improve quickly.”
Wolff was puzzled by Mercedes` severe tyre problems, especially considering that rivals like Ferrari, Red Bull, and McLaren seemed to get quicker throughout the race. He stated: Toto Wolff: “Clearly our worst performance so far this year. The pace simply disappeared due to blistering and overheating tyres, and so far we haven`t got the explanations. When you kind of manage your expectations by being second quickest, and even that is not obviously what we would wish to achieve, then you see this race panning out like it did, it just adds to the frustration of the situation.”
Despite the challenging Saudi race, Russell continued his streak of finishing every race this year within the top five. He is currently 26 points behind the new championship leader, Piastri.
The tyre degradation issues in Jeddah were particularly confusing for Russell, as it hadn`t been a significant problem for Mercedes at other demanding tracks like China or Bahrain. Russell added: George Russell: “It`s more about how fast we are going through these corners and for whatever reason we are generating more temperature than our rivals.” He further explained the rapid tyre decline: “Suddenly you get to a point and the tyre is like a balloon. We had blistering on the front and rear, then we had no grip. We need to understand why Bahrain was so positive because that`s also an overheating track, but a very different type of overheating to what you experience in Jeddah. We had high hopes for Saudi Arabia but it turned out the opposite, so it`s something we need to understand.”
Meanwhile, Kimi Antonelli finished just seven seconds behind Russell. In contrast to his teammate, Antonelli did not suffer from similar severe tyre issues towards the end of the race. The 18-year-old driver commented on his performance: Kimi Antonelli: “The last 10 to 15 laps were pretty positive… The first stint I need to review because I was struggling with the balance and the front tyre dropped quite easily, so I had to pit earlier compared to the others. Then I had to manage a lot more on the hard, but the last 10 laps I was able to push and it was nice to see the pace was up there.”
Antonelli, who is among the youngest drivers ever to compete in Formula 1, also mentioned touching the wall twice during the race, describing it as “really scary.” Although visibly tired after the Saudi event, the Italian rookie maintained his consistent performance trend, staying relatively close to Russell and establishing himself as a leading newcomer after five rounds.
Antonelli concluded about the recent run of races: Kimi Antonelli: “The triple-header was a good test physically and mentally, but also really good to learn… Three completely different tracks, situations, so it was good to experience that. I need to work on open tarmac where the degradation is higher. The degradation in Saudi was still there but it was good learnings from Bahrain, and I was happy with how I managed the car in the second stint. Now I have a week off to gather all the information and think about it properly to come back stronger.”
