Toto Wolff explains Mercedes’ dominant 1-3 « » in Montreal but remains cautious for the future
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has shared his thoughts on his team's "dominating" victory at the Canadian Grand Prix, revealing the factors that enabled Mercedes to outperform the competition in Montreal.
George Russell brilliantly converted his pole position into a fourth career victory at the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit, withstanding pressure from Max Verstappen and a post-race protest from Red Bull to give Mercedes their first win of the season.
Ideal conditions for Mercedes
When asked about the reasons for Mercedes’ domination on a circuit where the cooler conditions — generally favorable to the team — were ultimately absent, Toto Wolff joked: “I thought it was when I wore a sweater that we performed well, because that meant it was cold! And today, with 50 degrees track temperature, we were dominant.”
We changed certain things on the car, notably a new rear suspension. I am really happy with how the team handled that, both on the track and at the factory, on how these developments were integrated. But I think we also need to consider the circuit configuration. Montreal has always been good for us; there aren’t the typical fast corners where we suffer more with the heat. That’s a point. And then, the asphalt is quite smooth here, less abrasive, so less damaging for our car which tends to overheat and degrade the rear tires, he explains.
Eager to say more about the rear suspension changes on the Mercedes W16 that allowed George Russell to win in Canada and his teammate Kimi Antonelli to become the third youngest driver to step onto an F1 podium, Toto Wolff admitted that these modifications, first introduced in Imola, were not a miracle solution that suddenly transformed the team into the leader of the field.
« The new rear geometry was introduced to address a specific problem: the overheating of the rear tire surface. We weren’t sure about the results in Imola, as they were less favorable than expected. Removing it afterward was the right decision and reinstalling it here as well, hoping the development direction is correct. »
« With these regulations, you never know if an evolution will work or not; the correlation remains difficult, especially for us, but also for other teams. Putting it here… I think other factors also play a role. The layout is different, the asphalt too, and there’s never a single solution that transforms a car simply capable of aiming for the podium into a dominant car. »
« But the more data we have, the more we learn »
When asked if this victory gave him confidence to replicate this performance in upcoming races, Toto Wolff replied: « I am never confident, as performance gaps are always present.
« We saw it last year: on certain circuits, the gap was huge with the second, we dominated the whole weekend. It’s a bit like what happened here. Austria will be a completely different challenge, a different layout, new difficulties. All our brains and attention are already focused on Austria. This race is done, we tick the box. »
The 40 points gathered by Mercedes in Montreal allowed them to move back ahead of Ferrari to 2nd place in the Constructors’ standings, even though they remain 175 points behind the leader McLaren, despite Lando Norris’s zero points after his spectacular collision with teammate Oscar Piastri.
