TECH CORNER: The upgrades that helped Mercedes dominate the Montreal weekend
On the back of a double podium at last Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix for Mercedes, F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers his latest analysis, taking a look at the Brackley-based outfit's upgrades that contributed to their first victory of the season.
It was an almost perfect weekend for Mercedes. George Russell secured his second consecutive pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Briton then made a great start, and although reigning champion Max Verstappen kept him honest, the Mercedes driver was seemingly controlling proceedings.
Russell completed the race distance with a conventional two-stop strategy, and did not put a foot wrong to convert pole to the win, his first of the year.
His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli also had a brilliant getaway, a bold move saw the Italian gain a place by overtaking championship leader Oscar Piastri into Turn 3 on the opening lap.
He ran third from there, and came close to picking off reigning champion Max Verstappen when the Dutchman struggled for rear grip at the end of his opening stint.
With McLaren’s MCL39 coming alive in the closing stages of the race, Antonelli came under huge pressure from Piastri, but defended superbly to pick up his first career podium and become the third-youngest driver to stand on the rostrum.
The Brackley-based outfit's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has admitted that Mercedes had known that the Montreal track would suit their 2025 F1 car.
"After a difficult triple header, this was a great way to bounce back and reward the hard work that both factories have put into improving the car.
"We know that some of the circuit characteristics suited us this weekend, but it nonetheless feels like we've made some good learnings.
Post-qualifying analysis showed that George Russell's pole was down to his ability to spend the most time on full-thottle. The Briton spent a total of 67.1 per cent of the lap on full throttle, comfortably beating Max Verstappen (63.4 per cent), Oscar Piastri (61.5 per cent) and Lewis Hamilton (63 per cent).
The W15 showed hardly any weaknesses in qualifying. Russell recorded a top speed of 332kph which was 3 kph lower than what Verstappen achieved, but its was still higher than Piastri's. The Mercedes driver was the quickest in the slowest corner of the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve and the second quickest in the fastest corner.
While track conditions and the circuit's characteristics might have played into the hands of Mercedes, the Brackley-based outfit's relentless development work definitely contributed to their success.
The German-British team brought a new floor to Canada. The new configuration features a subtle revision to the edges. The reduced flap chord and tweaked vanes are expected to increase "mass flow under forward floor and vorticity shed from the fence system, increasing floor load."
While the modified floor was a performance upgrade, the Silver Arrows have also brought a circuit-specific modification. The modified front brake ducts featured increased inlet and exit area which were introduced "to cover off high brake duty for this circuit."
