Toto Wolff has admitted his surprise at Mercedes' major upgrade package for the Bahrain Grand Prix having appeared to take the team backwards, following an underwhelming qualifying display. Despite dominating the 2026 season, Mercedes have brought far fewer upgrades than their rivals at the front of the grid, which meant anticipation had built around the addition of their first major package since May. The Silver Arrows arrived in Malaysia, which is hosting the event due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, off the back of three successive race victories, and most expected that streak to continue with the help of the upgrades.
Instead, Drivers' Championship leader Kimi Antonelli could only manage fourth, while his team-mate George Russell was eighth as Red Bull's Max Verstappen claimed a dominant pole. Both Mercedes drivers will move up a place on the grid as a result of third-placed Isack Hadjar having to serve a grid penalty. Wolff told Sky Sports F1: "Very difficult to understand.
We have been a little bit caught out on Friday with some car behaviour that we didn't see all year, but then you can say it's very hot and the tarmac is different to all the (other) tracks. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "It looked really good this morning (in final practice). We seemed to have, at least with Kimi, made a step in understanding.
"And then, qualifying was a little bit back to what we saw before, just no performance. "It looks like we are very draggy, because it's the first time that we are losing a lot of time on the straights, especially to Max. "And then through the low-speed, we are not able to turn the car.
There's just too much understeer. So, overall, things we haven't seen this year." Verstappen's first pole of the season was secured by an emphatic margin, with Antonelli half a second behind and Russell a further couple of tenths back. While the extreme heat and track surface at the Sepang International Circuit make for unique conditions, Wolff was still alarmed by the timesheet.
"Something else is going on, and we have to understand," he added. "This is now working through the data and putting our heads together, because we still believe that the upgrade works. We just need to understand why not here.
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