Racing
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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says it is still too early to know whether the team’s first major 2026 upgrade package delivered the gains it expected, despite a dominant Canadian Grand Prix weekend that brought pole positions and wins in both the sprint and the main race.
Speaking to media including RacingNews365 and Crash.net after Montreal, Wolff said the results were not enough on their own to prove the new W17 package had worked exactly as planned. “At times, I felt like it didn't bring the performance gains that we had expected on paper, but it's very difficult to assess,” he said.
A big part of that uncertainty, according to Wolff, is that Mercedes never got a clean comparison against McLaren in the race. “We didn't see the McLarens today at all,” he said. “We had the pace, we had the gap, but how much that is, is it what we have anticipated? I think it's very difficult to judge yet.”
Mercedes had waited longer than some of its rivals before introducing its first significant package of the season. While McLaren brought seven new parts in Miami and another seven in Canada, Mercedes chose Montreal for its first major update, adding eight upgrades to the W17.
Wolff also cautioned that Circuit Gilles Villeneuve may have made Mercedes look stronger than it really is across the wider calendar. “Montreal was a sweet circuit for us last year,” he said, raising the possibility that the track’s characteristics were flattering the true effect of the new parts.
That is why Mercedes is resisting any early claim that Canada marked a definitive step forward. Wolff said the team still needs more evidence before it can judge whether the package has created a lasting advantage. “Probably Monaco, we won't know it either, so we need to continue to monitor and to analyse.”