Mercedes' W17 upgrade

Mercedes suffered an unexpected setback in Malaysia as their upgrade for the W17 failed to deliver.

Qualifying performance

The runaway leaders in the constructors’ championship produced one of their weakest qualifying performances of the season at Sepang.

Wolff on expected gain

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said they expected the team’s long-awaited upgrade, one of few major packages they have introduced, would be worth around three tenths of a second.

Wolff on performance drop

You’re expecting three tenths to kick in and it looks like [we’ve gone] three or four or five tenths backwards.

“You’re expecting three tenths to kick in and it looks like [we’ve gone] three or four or five tenths backwards”

Track conditions

Wolff said the unusually abrasive track surface at Sepang has complicated the team’s efforts to understand their new package.

Car performance issues

They are very draggy because it’s the first time that we’re losing a lot of time on the straights to, especially, Max, and through low speed turn two, they cannot turn the car due to too much understeer.