Sports · Motorsport · 4 hrs ago
Mercedes sees progress with F1 upgrade at the United States Grand Prix
Mercedes says its troublesome F1 upgrade improved during Friday practice at the United States Grand Prix in Austin.
The package first appeared in Malaysia, where the team expected it to make its W17 faster but instead saw its performance worsen.
In Singapore, Andrea Kimi Antonelli used the upgrade while George Russell kept the older car, allowing Mercedes to compare the two versions.
At Austin, both drivers had the upgrade, and changes made after a difficult first practice helped them handle the car through corners.
Mercedes says it has made progress, but the team still needs to find a setup that works consistently.
Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull were separated by just 0.198 seconds in second practice, so the fight at the front looks close.
Mercedes planned to work overnight and continue assessing the car in Saturday practice.
Mercedes said it had made progress with its Formula 1 upgrade at the United States Grand Prix in Austin.
Both Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell used the updated specification after Mercedes had split its cars between new and old versions in Singapore.
The team said changes between the first and second practice sessions improved how the car handled corners.
Antonelli was 0.042 seconds behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the second practice session.
Mercedes said more work was needed to make the car perform consistently in the right window.
- Who
- Mercedes drivers Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell, and the team.
- What
- Mercedes reported progress with its Formula 1 upgrade at the United States Grand Prix.
- When
- Friday practice at the 2026 United States Grand Prix.
- Where
- Austin, United States.
- Why
- The team was assessing an upgrade package that had caused performance concerns after its introduction in Malaysia.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Mercedes introduced its upgrade package, but the car’s performance unexpectedly went backwards.
Mercedes used the upgrade on Antonelli’s car and the older specification on Russell’s.
Both drivers used the upgrade, and Mercedes reported improvements between FP1 and FP2.
- Circuit
- Austin
- Drivers on updated specification
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell
- Antonelli’s gap to Leclerc in FP2
- 0.042 seconds
- Gap among Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull in FP2
- 0.198 seconds
What people are saying
So, we made a decent step forward. Hopefully there’s a bit more to come overnight, but it looked a lot more solid at least.
Ultimately, it's been an encouraging day for us given the progress we've taken with the update package
Whilst the car wasn't in a great place in FP1, we made some good improvements for FP2 and definitely moved the car in the right direction.