Mercedes reveals cause of ‘very painful’ reliability problems after George Russell, Kimi Antonelli expensive retirements | F1 News

Mercedes believe they have understood the causes of their “very painful” reliability problems so far this season as they work to introduce solutions as the 2026 campaign progresses.

The world championship leaders have suffered costly race-ending failures for George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in two of the last three events.

Russell retired while leading at last month’s Canadian Grand Prix, while Antonelli dropped out with three laps to go after finishing second in last Sunday’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Mercedes’ customer teams, particularly McLaren, have experienced power-unit problems in the first months of the sport’s new era of engine and chassis rules.

And while not all issues were exactly the same, technical director James Allison believes they’ve gotten to the heart of overriding problems associated with batteries.

“I think anyone who is a keen observer of the sport will have seen that it has left a few Mercedes-engined cars short of the season so far,” said the team’s Allison. Anu Silver Arrows Radio Show.

“They’re not all the same, but they all originate in the same broad area of ​​the battery. And I think most of the areas of risk are understood and, with a bit of luck, when we start picking stages in the racing season on the new modules – we call the batteries ‘modules’ – we should sort out the luck.

“Certainly for us, it’s an important issue. These DNFs are very, very painful.”

On how they balance more performance from the car with increased reliability, Allison said: “You accept that there will be failures.

“We try to make sure that failure happens in testing or on rigs and that it happens as little as possible when you’re trying to earn championship points.

“Now, obviously, it doesn’t always work because occasionally the car will DNF and that’s definitely a failure of our process and all our efforts to deliver performance without the downside of that performance.

“But when a failure like that happens, in the first instance, and maybe before it’s fully understood, the team takes a little half-step back to be more careful with the equipment, to make it a little less rigid, to give some resilience to the obviously distressed kit.

“But a different part of the team will try to figure out what was the root cause of the failure to design it, prove it and put something back on the table that’s robust enough.

“So you do a first intervention that’s just to try to give the vulnerable thing an easier life, then work on a proper, proper cure that allows you to really cane it.”

Allison confident Mercedes can strike after Ferrari upgrade gains

Even before Antonelli pulled off the track in the closing stages when his W17 electric shut down, Mercedes were set for their first race-day defeat of the season at Barcelona.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton combined strong pace and tire management with a well-timed Virtual Safety Car to stage a three-stop maneuver in the closing stages of the race, eventually winning by 19.6 seconds from Russell.

Hamilton also came within a tenth of beating Russell on pole on Saturday in Ferrari’s most competitive display of the season so far.

It came after the Scuderia introduced a major upgrade to their car in Spain at the weekend, with rivals including Mercedes coming up with smaller additions.

Allison believes the pecking order will continue to be strongly influenced by the in-season development races – but confident Mercedes, who lead both world championship races, have the ability to nose ahead.

“I think most of what you’re seeing are these very young rules,” Allison said.

“Our car was launched with a bit of a head start with the other teams, a head start that we’ve been able to maintain for a number of races. But the fact that the rules are so young means it’s relatively easy at the moment, because the rules haven’t been explored as much as they could be, to find performance.

“And a significant upgrade package is worth as much as the gap between our car and the others at the start of the season

“So if Ferrari brings an upgrade package to a race not answered by one of our own, it will close the gap that was comfortable before and I think that’s mostly what we’re seeing.

“Of course, we are not without guns in this fight and in due course, our car will get its own upgrade.

“As long as we can keep the overall development slope in the factory steep and then deploy it when we think it’s sufficient to do that and it’s appropriate for us to do that, then we should be able to re-establish the gains we had at the beginning of the year if our development slope matches everyone else’s in the factory.”

Mercedes leads Ferrari by 72 points in the constructors’ championship, while Antonelli leads Hamilton by 41 points and Russell by 50 points in the drivers’ standings, with next week’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Sky Sports F1’s Austrian GP schedule

Thursday 25 June
2pm: Drivers press conference
5pm: Paddock uncut

Friday 26 June
8.50am: Exercised F3
10am: F2 practice
12.00pm: Austrian GP Practice One (Session starts at 12.30pm)
1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
2.30pm: Team bosses press conference
2.50pm: F2 Qualifying
3.35pm: Austrian GP Practice Two (Session starts at 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 show

Saturday, June 27
9am: F3 sprint
11.15am: Austrian GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Austrian GP Qualifying Build-up*
3pm: Austrian GP Qualifying*
5pm: Ted’s qualifying notebook

Sunday 28 June
7.35am: F3 Feature Race
9.05am: F2 feature race
10.50am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Austrian GP Build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
2pm: Austrian Grand Prix*
4pm: Austrian GP Reaction: Checkered flag
5pm: Ted’s Notebook

*Also on Sky Sports main events

Formula 1’s European season continues with the Austrian Grand Prix on June 26-28, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports now – no contract, cancel anytime