When the Mercedes team arrived at the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, they expected their highly anticipated upgrade package to completely solidify their championship lead. Instead, the updates drastically underperformed, leaving team principal Toto Wolff scrambling to figure out why the real-world pace failed to match the factory wind tunnel data.
To solve the puzzle, Mercedes deliberately divided their garage for the ongoing Singapore Grand Prix Sprint weekend. While George Russell has reverted to an older, proven car specification, his team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli is continuing to run the controversial Malaysia upgrades.
