Wolff wrestles with ‘painful’ Mercedes runner-up result in F1 2025 championship
The Mercedes W16 on the stands in the garage, as it’s prepared for action, with the floor, sidepod and engine cover bodywork and the front brake drums still removed, allowing us to see some of the detail we’re not always privy to.
Mercedes may have finished runner-up to McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship, but over 350 points down on the championship winners, Toto Wolff says there was no P2 celebration, just “pain”.
McLaren stamped its authority as the team to beat in F1 2025, winning 12 of the first 15 grands prix to be in the position to wrap up the teams’ trophy at the Singapore Grand Prix with six rounds remaining.
Toto Wolff in ‘two minds’ over Mercedes’ runner-up result
That equalled the record set by Red Bull in 2023.
Mercedes, with two wins on the board, took on Ferrari and Red Bull for a spot on the season’s podium where the Scuderia sat P2 before podiums in Sao Paulo and a double in Las Vegas for Mercedes swung the battle in the Brackley team’s favour.
Mercedes finished the season runner-up to McLaren with 469 points, 18 ahead of Red Bull and 71 clear of Ferrari.
The team was, however, 364 shy of the championship-winning McLaren team.
It wasn’t so much a bitter-sweet result for Mercedes, as it was painful, says Wolff.
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“I’m a little bit in two minds, because in 10 years, you look back at the stats and you can see a vice-world champion, P2,” the team principal admitted during the team’s end-of-season review.
“But the reality is that we didn’t achieve our goals.
“We want to win. We want to win races. We want to be in the hunt for a World Championship and hopefully win.
“And we didn’t. And that is the pain of the moment that it just wasn’t good enough.”
Next season, however, will be a reboot for Formula 1’s pecking order.
The F1 2026 season will feature a major set of regulation changes with all-new cars on the grid that feature active aerodynamics, and that will be powered by revised engines.
Formula 1 will welcome ‘Overtake Mode’ and ‘Boost Mode’, power boosts in attack, although ‘Overtake Mode’ will only be active in what was, in 2025, a DRS zone.
‘Active aero’ is perhaps one of the more intriguing introductions as the drivers will be able to activate the wings, front and rear, as required for corners and straights.
But while Mercedes has been tipped to be the favourite given its 2014 gains in the V6 era, Wolff reckons the “real hybrid” era will be “fascinating” to see how it unfolds.
“We had a very successful spell over those years,” the Austrian said. “We won eight championships, but we had difficult years that followed.
“And so this one era ends, an era that we will be looking back on with a lot of positive memories, mostly positive memories.
“But now we are starting in the real hybrid era. We are driving 50% electric engines, with sustainable fuel, and that almost pops — gives it one notch of innovation more.
“And I just came out of the simulator watching the car drive; it’s going to be fascinating.”
Mercedes has yet to announce when it will launch its 2026 car, the W17, but it will be on track in late January for a behind-closed-door test with its rivals.
The teams will be in action in three separate outings, the first taking place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from January 26-30. The second, which will be open to the public and media, will be hosted by the Bahrain International Circuit from February 11-13 with the third from the 18-20 February.
After that, the 11 teams will head to Melbourne for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
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