Here’s what was behind Mercedes’ lack of pace at the F1 Austrian GP

For Mercedes, the joy of winning the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix evaporated in the heat of Austria as George Russell came home fifth – more than a minute behind the dominant McLarens having targeted a podium the day before.

Instead, under the searing sun at the Red Bull Ring, the W16 was the protagonist of its worst weekend of the year, suffering from tyre overheating problems that had already slowed it down at other sweltering races in Jeddah and Imola.

Austria proved to be a race to forget, also because, in addition to the minute accumulated by the MCL39, Ferrari also finished 30 seconds up the road having brought an upgrade that took it to the position of ‘best of the rest’.

In Spielberg, Russell crossed the finish line with a margin of only five seconds over the midfield teams, more busy looking in the mirrors than chasing and attacking Ferrari, except for a brief duel at the start of the race with former team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

“I was expecting a bad race and it was worse than I even could imagine,” said Russell. “The problem is so clear, coming off the back of Canada with the win, with no tyre overheating, we’re the quickest.

“But as soon as you get to a track where there’s a bit of overheating, we drop off so much. So, to be honest, the team have been working so hard for six months now to try and solve this issue. We’ve got ideas, but nothing that’s really, we’re not really making major headway right now.”

It’s not just a question of temperatures

Clear, direct words which highlight how overheating tyres remains the most limiting problem of the W16. But it is not just a question of temperatures. Even in Canada, in fact, the asphalt had reached 50C, with the available compounds one step softer than those used in Austria.

Even in Spain, the temperature was close to 50C and, although it is true that there were harder compounds, the gap was under 30 seconds and not that far from Ferrari. This is to underline how the main critical issues are not linked to the temperature factor alone, but to a mixture of elements, including the conformation of the track and the way in which the car interacts with the tyres.

For this reason, the victory in Canada was not an anomaly , despite the heat: the slow and sharp curves had limited the thermal stress, so much so that it did not allow the McLaren to fully exploit its qualities.

On the contrary, in Austria the track is actually divided into two distinct sectors: one composed of strong braking sections interspersed with three straights where the DRS can be used, the other characterised by a succession of fast curves that transmit a lot of energy to the tyres, increasing the risk of overheating.

The perfect storm of problems

In qualifying, the W16 was able to keep up the pace on the straights and in the hard braking areas, so much so that it came close to the record pace set by McLaren. But in the long corners the problems emerged, especially in Turn 9, where the Mercedes was clearly in difficulty compared to all the other top teams.

An unusual result, because at least on the flying lap Mercedes was expected to be closer, as seen on other fast tracks such as Imola or Jeddah, where the problems had emerged more on the race pace in conditions that were still relatively cool – under 40C.

Watch: Why Mercedes’ 2026 driver line up is still up in the air – F1 British GP Preview

Instead, it was the pace on the long distance that had given the best indications, misleading the team.

“We felt like there was a direction we wanted to go, which was perfectly logical for Canada, but a little bit counterintuitive for Austria,” said Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff.

“And our long runs looked really good. But then obviously the temperatures went up, the grip went up and you end up thinking that maybe it would have been better to stick with what we already knew from last year here.”

Having not substantially changed the basic set-up choices compared to Friday, when between qualifying on Saturday afternoon and the race on Sunday the asphalt temperature rose by around 10C, Mercedes melted and went into crisis – similar to Red Bull – with the difficulties already seen in qualifying amplified, especially on a rather abrasive asphalt.

In fact, not only did they intensify, but they also weighed on other areas of the track: with overheated tyres, traction effectiveness also disappeared.

“It’s the perfect storm. It’s one of the roughest asphalts of the season. It’s a high-speed track, the most laps of the season and 50 degrees Celsius of track,” Russell added.

The experimental question

Toto Wolff, Mercedes

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Wolff also explained how, for last weekend, Mercedes had chosen to carry out some experimental tests, also with a view to 2026. Before the Canadian Grand Prix, Simone Resta had explained how the problems seen in the triple header also derived from issues with the set-up window, something that, according to Wolff, also occurred in Austria.

“The only positive thing I take away from this weekend is that we tried something extreme: in Montreal it worked, here it didn’t. We could have used last year’s set-up and maybe, I don’t know, we would have finished on the podium,” he said.

“We tried to take something from Barcelona and Montreal, in terms of set-up and aero-mechanical balance, but it was the wrong choice.

“Now we have ticked this box too. It would have been dramatic if we were playing for a win or a championship, but that is not the case.”