After Kimi Antonelli’s retirement in Spain, alarm bells are ringing at Mercedes—according to Toto Wolff, the team cannot afford breakdowns happening this frequently
Although many experts consider the Mercedes W17 to be the best overall package in the 2026 Formula 1 season, only one Mercedes driver has scored points in each of the past three races. George Russell failed to score any points on two occasions, and in Barcelona, Kimi Antonelli was the first to be affected.
While Russell was knocked out of the top 10 in Monaco due to a penalty that ultimately seemed unjustified, he retired from the race in Canada due to a mechanical failure. Antonelli was also forced to retire his Silver Arrow shortly before the end of the race this past weekend in Spain.
“We can’t afford retirements on a regular basis or time and time again,” said team principal Toto Wolff, frustrated after the third scoreless race in a row. “To finish first, you first have to cross the finish line,” the Austrian emphasized.
Mercedes still leads both world championships, though. But in the Drivers’ Championship, Lewis Hamilton already overtook George Russell in Monaco and has now narrowed the gap to championship leader Antonelli to “just” 41 points in Barcelona.
According to Wolff, Mercedes must therefore urgently get its reliability issues under control. “That’s the top priority. Nobody is happy with this,” the team boss makes clear, announcing: “We’ll leave no stone unturned.”
What’s particularly striking is that there have been recurring battery issues throughout the season. This affected not only the works team itself but also, for example, the customer team McLaren. According to Wolff, however, no clear pattern has emerged so far.
“Most of the other cases were related to the battery,” he confirms, “but they involved different faults. “It wasn’t always the same thing,” Wolff clarifies. So this is not a recurring defect, but apparently different problems each time.
“We will really do everything we can to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” Wolff emphasizes following the most recent defect in Spain.
