Toto Wolff 'in two minds' over Mercedes' 2025 constructors' championship P2 finish

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has admitted to mixed feelings about securing second place in the 2025 Formula 1 constructors' championship, stating that while the result is positive on paper, it ultimately fell short of the team's core objective: winning. The team fended off Ferrari and Red Bull for the runner-up spot after McLaren clinched the title in Singapore, but Wolff's reflection is tempered by a decade of higher standards.

Why it matters:

For a team that dominated the sport with eight consecutive constructors' titles from 2014 to 2021, finishing as 'vice-champion' is a stark reminder of its current competitive reality. Wolff's candid admission highlights the internal pressure and ambition at Mercedes to return to the very top, framing the P2 finish not as a consolation but as a painful benchmark of unmet goals in the new regulatory era.

The details:

• In a team debrief, Wolff articulated the conflict, noting that while the statistics will show a P2 finish, "the reality is that we didn't achieve our goals. We want to win races. We want to be in the hunt for a world championship... And that is the pain of the moment that it just wasn't good enough."
• The 2025 season marked a significant transition, with rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli replacing the departed Lewis Hamilton. Antonelli secured a respectable seventh in the drivers' standings with 150 points in his debut season.
• George Russell led the team's charge, finishing fourth in the championship with 319 points.
• The result continues a trend since the introduction of ground-effect aerodynamics in 2022, where Mercedes has struggled to replicate the dominant form it enjoyed in the previous turbo-hybrid era, initially losing ground to Red Bull and more recently to a resurgent McLaren.

The big picture:

Mercedes' performance arc is a classic case of a dominant force navigating a seismic regulatory shift. The team's unparalleled success from 2014-2021 set an incredibly high benchmark, making any position other than first feel like underachievement internally. Wolff's comments underscore that the team's culture and expectations remain firmly anchored in championship-winning standards, even as the competitive landscape has dramatically changed.

What's next:

All focus now shifts to the 2026 season and the introduction of a new set of technical and power unit regulations. This represents Formula 1's next major reset and Mercedes' clearest opportunity to leapfrog its rivals and re-establish a championship-winning package. The development of the W16 and the team's ability to interpret the new rules will be the ultimate test of whether it can transform Wolff's current 'two minds' state back into the singular focus of a title contender.