Jun 15, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Mercedes driver George Russell (63) and Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli (12) celebrate their first and third place at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. Mandatory Credit: David Kirouac-Imagn Images

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Toto Wolff Reveals the Secret Behind Mercedes’ Double Podium in Canadian GP!

The big secret to Mercedes dominance in Canada

It was near perfect weekend for Mercedes F1 at the Canadian Grand Prix. Their drivers brought in a double podium finish claiming the highest points out of every other team. George Russell won the race leading from pole position. Meanwhile, Kimi Antonelli claimed P3 and secured his first podium in Formula 1 racing.

Throughout the weekend, Mercedes were the fastest cars on track. Russell and Antonelli were the top drivers during both Practice sessions. George Russell, the 2024 pole winner, claimed pole once again at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. During the entire race, Max Verstappen was driving dangerously close challenging Russell. However, with their superior straight line speed and better tyre graining, Mercedes simply trumped everyone on track. At one point, Kimi Antonelli was putting the pressure behind Max Verstappen. But, how did Mercedes pull of this feat in Montreal?

Toto Wolff Explains Mercedes’ Performance Gains in Canada

Canada is rather favorable track for Mercedes F1. The weather conditions are cooler in Montreal. This help the Mercedes perform better with less tyre degradation and graining. Although, this time around even the weather advantage had disappeared.

But Mercedes had another trick up their sleeve, they brought changes to rear suspension. The new suspension was a disaster for them in Imola. The cars performed vastly different to expectations. But, Mercedes weren’t going to ditch their plans easily. They collected more data and reintroduced the new suspension in Canada. And this time the upgrade was rather magical for the team.

George Russell is our fourth winner so far this season 🤩#F1 #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/AB7ugrWZkK
— Formula 1 (@F1) June 16, 2025

“I think we brought the new rear geometry for that particular problem that we had, the rear surface overheating, and we weren’t quite sure about the results in Imola, because they were worse than we expected, and then taking it off I think was the right thing to do – and bringing it on here, because hopefully the development direction is correct. In these kind of regulations, you never know whether you land development or whether you don’t; correlation has been difficult, particularly for us, but for many other teams, and putting it on here is… I think there are other factors at play here.”

Interestingly, Mercedes are not going to dwell on their victory for long. They are already looking forward towards the next weekend. After a one week break, Formula 1 will return to racing in Austria. Last year, the Silver Arrows won the Austrian Grand Prix.

Their success in Canada is going to bring more confidence to the drivers. Both Russell and Antonelli had to face rather disappointing weekends in the triple header. Now that Mercedes have found one good solution, they need to repeat the process and find themselves a better one for Red Bull Ring.

Canadian GP Results

Formula 1

Formula 1 2025 Season

George Russell

Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes Formula 1 Team

Toto Wolff

Rohan Singh

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I work as a Writer at The Playoffs specialising in NHL, Formula 1 and Motorsports. I got into online journalism a couple of years ago. I used to be an intern for a website managing their Formula 1 content and then I served an entire year as a contractual writer.