{"id":33738,"date":"2025-05-13T13:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T17:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=33738"},"modified":"2025-05-13T13:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T17:35:08","slug":"mercedes-to-bring-important-sequence-of-upgrades-to-w16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/05\/13\/mercedes-to-bring-important-sequence-of-upgrades-to-w16\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes to bring important sequence of upgrades to W16"},"content":{"rendered":"

Without any major updates or modifications, the Mercedes<\/a> W16 has quietly establish itself as a very competitive package.<\/p>\n

With the wider F1 narrative focused on Max Verstappen and McLaren, the Silver Arrows have gone somewhat under the radar this season.<\/p>\n

Despite this, the W16 – particularly in the hands of George Russell<\/a> – consistently finds itself fighting for the podium positions.<\/p>\n

McLaren’s MCL39 remains the benchmark, but unlike previous seasons under this set of regulations, Mercedes are within touching distance.<\/p>\n

Mercedes confirm W16 updates in bid to catch McLaren<\/h2>\n

Throughout last season, and indeed 2022 and 2023, it was inconsistency that prevented Mercedes from fighting for Championships.<\/p>\n

Differences in track temperature, wind conditions and circuit layouts all impacted their performance from week to week – making it almost impossible to string together strong results.<\/p>\n

Things have changed significantly in 2025, though, with the W16 a far more consistent machine than its predecessors.<\/p>\n

In terms of ultimate pace, there is still a notable gap to McLaren<\/a>. The papaya team also enjoy the luxury of fantastic tyre management and excellent race pace.<\/p>\n

Still, Mercedes can be satisfied that – generally speaking – they are more than a match for Ferrari and Red Bull, both of whom brought updates in previous events.<\/p>\n

\"\"
2025 Miami Grand Prix, Friday – LAT Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wolff outlines Mercedes plans<\/h4>\n

Having established a strong baseline in the first six rounds, Mercedes can be confident about their first major upgrades of 2025.<\/p>\n

Toto Wolff<\/a> confirms the next series of events will see big transformations to the W16:<\/p>\n

“Our focus is on making gains on that final point, as we begin the European leg of the season.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The team at Lauda drive have been working hard to do that, and we will be bringing several updates over the coming races.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Most teams will bring substantial upgrades this weekend in Imola, owing to the logistical ease of transporting components at the first European event of the campaign.<\/p>\n

However, updates to the W16 in Spain and Montreal also promise to push the Brackley squad forward.<\/p>\n

The technical directive to be implemented at the Spanish GP will also force teams – some more than others – to make adjustments to any flexi-wing components they have.<\/p>\n

Mercedes are not major beneficiaries of flexi-wings, at least relative to McLaren, so the Silver Arrows will undoubtedly follow how competitors perform in Barcelona<\/a> with great interest.<\/p>\n

\"\"
2025 Miami Grand Prix, Friday – Richard Pardon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Previous weaknesses rectified<\/h4>\n

Generally speaking, the last twelve months have seen growing confidence from James Allison and his technical team.<\/p>\n

Even at the early stages of last year, Allison was adamant that Mercedes were pursuing the right concept for long-term development.<\/p>\n

In fact, these comments came just before the 2024 Canadian GP – when Ferrari began experiencing their first major obstacles.<\/p>\n

Almost twelve years later, it is Mercedes who find themselves in a far stronger relative position.<\/p>\n

Ferrari’s SF-25, aside from lacking in downforce and traction, suffers from a very small operating window.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Red Bull<\/a> have managed to rectify some of the RB21’s worst unpredictability from the first few rounds – but the new floor Verstappen used in Miami wasn’t enough to put any pressure on McLaren.<\/p>\n

Aside from McLaren, Toto Wolff’s team have enjoyed the best development trajectory over the last year.<\/p>\n

This should serve as a strong platform for further improvement and further vindicate James Allison’s interventions at Brackley.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: LAT Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without any major updates or modifications, the Mercedes W16 has quietly establish itself as a very competitive package. With the wider F1 narrative focused on Max Verstappen and McLaren, the Silver Arrows have gone somewhat under the radar this season. Despite this, the W16 – particularly in the hands of George Russell – consistently finds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":33602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,121,825],"class_list":["post-33738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-mercedes","tag-toto-wolff"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33738"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33741,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33738\/revisions\/33741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}