Why Mercedes is playing down rift with F1 engine customers

In the aftermath of George Russell securing pole position for the sprint race in China by 0.289s from Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, and a substantial 0.621s from third-placed Lando Norris's McLaren, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has moved to quell talk of a schism with its customer teams.

After qualifying for last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, when Mercedes finally showed its hand and dominated qualifying by a similar margin, it became clear that the works team enjoyed an advantage over its clients in terms of how it exploited its power unit to maximise lap time. Naturally the grumbling began, though McLaren and to a lesser extent Williams were the only customers to voice their frustrations in public.

The crux of the complaints was that only the works team had the latest power unit spec during the pre-season Bahrain tests, naturally leaving the customers with a ‘knowledge gap’ that affected the fidelity of their simulation outcomes. In Australia, Williams team principal James Vowles alluded to being "caught out" by the margin of Mercedes’ superiority.

"They have just been cleverer than we have, and it's our job to get on top of it," he said. "I'm just a little bit shocked by how much more clever."

"The discussion with HPP [Mercedes Benz High Performance Powertrains] about having more information has been going on for weeks," said McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

"Because even in testing, we were pretty much going on track, run the car, look at the data, oh, that's what we have. Good, now we react to what we have. That's not how you work in Formula 1."

Mercedes outqualified its customer teams in Australia and finished well ahead in the race

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Mercedes insisted that not only has it fulfilled all its obligations to its customers in terms of sharing information and data, its on-track advantage is built on superior all-round car performance rather than just power unit management.

Nevertheless the disgruntlement continued, to a point where Wolff held a ‘clear the air’ meeting in Shanghai this week. It’s understood that not only did Wolff seek to mollify his customers’ concerns, he sought an agreement to turn down some of the rhetoric surrounding the issue.

"At the end of the day everyone naturally tries to find some kind of advantage for themselves," said Wolff after the sprint qualifying session.

"Some do it a bit more behind the scenes, others through the media. But we discussed this again with the customer teams.

"It’s completely clear that nobody wanted to accuse anyone of anything. We’re trying to manage this within the regulations.

"And you can see that today they are much closer again – and [Pierre] Gasly probably delivered the strongest performance on the straights."

Alpine has joined the ranks of Mercedes customers this season

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The success of the meeting was palpable in the shift in tone from quarters that had previously been most critical. McLaren’s drivers, for instance, had clearly been briefed to boot any questions on the relationship with Mercedes into the long grass.

"It's just early on in the season, there's just a lot of things we're trying to figure out and understand," said Lando Norris in his pre-event press conference.

"Certain things don't need to be told. Because you always try and create your own advantages.

"But at the same time, there are certain things we’re having to figure out for ourselves. The rest of it is more for like… I don't know what the rules are and what has to be said or not.

"And those kind of things, that's down to Andrea and the rest of the team.

"But we've always worked closely [with Mercedes]. We'll continue to do it. And as much as he [Stella] said some of these things, there were still a lot of things that we just didn't explore and maximise ourselves."

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

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This is not entirely spin, since the data indicates that Mercedes has built its car concept around a different balance of energy harvesting: around Albert Park, Russell and Antonelli were not only achieving higher apex speeds than rivals (including Mercedes customers), but also super clipping in straight mode on the back straight. They could do so because the W17 has more efficient downforce, and a strong balance, which enables it to mitigate the understeer that can ensue when carrying higher speeds into corner entry.

As such, McLaren’s new position represents an acceptance of what it now sees as obvious: as well as learning more about how to maximise the Mercedes engine, it needs to add downforce to its car.