The Next Chapter
New season. New car. New line-up. “We open an exciting new era in the story of our team and Mercedes-AMG motorsport in 2025. We are building on the incredible legacy of our heritage, and we can’t wait to go racing," declares Toto.
New season. New car. New line-up. “We open an exciting new era in the story of our team and Mercedes-AMG motorsport in 2025. We are building on the incredible legacy of our heritage, and we can’t wait to go racing," declares Toto.
Launch day – one of our busiest but favourite days of the year. The culmination of months of hard work at Brackley and Brixworth was revealed to the world at the Bahrain International Circuit. Three days of pre-season testing would follow our official launch. 457 laps later, it was time to return to Brackley and break down all the data before the season opener in Australia two weeks later.
It was a strong start to 2025, with four podiums in six races for George - a P2 in Bahrain the highlight. Kimi's F1 career started brightly with a P4 on debut in Australia, and numerous F1 records. The 18-year-old became the youngest to lead a Grand Prix and set a fastest lap in Japan, and the youngest polesitter of any kind in the sport's history when he claimed P1 for the Miami Sprint. Up next, was Europe.
An updated rear suspension was brought to Imola for the start of the European swing, but it was start of a difficult run for the team, broken up only by a brilliant double podium in Canada. A fourth F1 win for George and a first Grand Prix podium for Kimi in P3. The rear suspension from the start of the season returned for Hungary and there were signs of improvement once again, with P3 for George and a P10 for Kimi sending the team into the summer break on a positive.
The 2025 season marks the fourth season of the current chassis regulations, and the 12th of the existing Power Unit regulations. For 2026, a major opportunity shines on the horizon.
“Being the fourth year of these regulations on the chassis side, the cars are in the more mature phase. Big gains in lap time are harder to come by but we’ve been focused on making improvements in the areas that held us back last year,” explains Technical Director, James Allison.
“Our primary focus has been on dialling out the W15’s slight reluctance to turn in slow corners, along with the imbalance in tyre temperatures that made the car inconsistent from session to session,” he continues.
“That focus has led to changes to nearly every visible aerodynamic surface, new front suspension, and further changes under the skin of the W16 to remedy some of the more challenging characteristics of its predecessor.”
James adds: “We are pleased with our progress over the winter and we’re looking forward to finding out where we stack up against everyone else.”
Power Unit development meanwhile remains frozen, but this doesn’t mean that work stops, as power unit boss Hywel Thomas, Managing Director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains explains: “We have been looking at reliability updates, and some calibration upgrades, to deliver robustness, squeeze the last little bits of performance out of the Power Unit and give ourselves the best opportunity this season. We’ve made good progress and hopefully that can add performance on track.”