Mercedes tackles F1 Achilles Heel with Canadian GP upgrades

The Mercedes Formula 1 team has made a number of changes for the Canadian Grand Prix in an effort to improve the W17’s starts, which have been notoriously poor thus far this season.

Kimi Antonelli and George Russell have both consistently lost places off the line, forcing them to battle harder than expected for their eventual race wins.

Updates for Montreal aimed at improving starts include software and clutch revisions and a new paddle for Antonelli, on top of the major aero package that the team has also brought.

“This weekend, obviously, we're bringing a lot of new things in the car, and definitely also there are a few bits about the starts,” Antonelli said on Thursday.

“We have a new clutch paddle on my side, just a different shape, just to help me to be a bit more consistent with the drops, and of course, the team has been working very hard on the software side as well, and also on the clutch side, just to try and find more performance, and also made the system a bit more robust.

“For sure, there's been a lot of work going on, because, for example, McLaren, they have the same PU as us, and they're starting very well, so there's definitely something that we're missing.

“But this weekend we are bringing a lot of changes, and we'll see already from [Friday] if it's going to be better or not.”

While the majority of the grid brought significant upgrade packages to the track last time out in Miami, Mercedes held most of its new parts back for the Montreal weekend. 

Russell suggested that there was more to come, while conceding that the lack of opportunities to practice starts didn’t help.

“Well, obviously the starts are a big focus for us because that’s clearly our biggest weak point,” said the Englishman. “We know short-term is going to be difficult to make major gains, and we’re obviously trying as hard as we can to solve it short-term.

“But there are also some medium-term items that we need to make changes to and continue to improve.

“And, of course, race starts, we don’t get to practice very often. You can’t practice it on the simulator, really. Some races you cannot even practice in free practice the race starts. So, we’ll keep trying our best to improve.”

Meanwhile, Antonelli expects the Montreal track to provide some good action this weekend.

“This track usually offers decent racing,” he said. “So obviously this year the racing has seen a lot more overtakes, a lot more action, so I think it can be the same here. Of course, it might not be as easy as, for example, Miami, because Miami is a bit wider, you have a bit more opportunity to make moves.

“But I think it's still going to offer a lot of good action, and I think it's going to be even more fun. I think driving the car around here, obviously, it's a type of track where you have a lot of change of direction, not a lot of high-speed corners.

“So with the characteristic of this year's car, I think it's going to be more fun to drive, because the car is smaller, it's lighter, it's more agile, so it's going to be much more reactive as well in the change of direction, so I think it's going to be very interesting to see, but I think it's going to be fun weekend.”