Mercedes reveal reasons for 'very painful' reliability problems after George Russell, Kimi Antonelli costly retirements
James Allison on what Mercedes' investigations into recent battery-related DNFs have shown and plan to avoid future repeats this season; watch every session of the Austrian Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 from Friday
Saturday 20 June 2026 10:14, UK
Mercedes believe they understand the reasons behind their "very painful" reliability problems so far this season as they work on introducing fixes as the 2026 campaign progresses.
The world championship leaders have suffered costly race-ending failures for George Russell and Kimi Antonelli in two of the last three events.
Russell retired when leading last month's Canadian Grand Prix, while Antonelli dropped out with three laps to go when running second in last Sunday's Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
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Mercedes' customer teams, notably McLaren, have also experienced power-unit issues in the first months of the sport's new era of engine and chassis rules.
And while the problems have not all been exactly the same, technical director James Allison believes they have got to the heart of overriding issues linked to the battery.
"I think anyone who's a keen watcher of the sport will have seen that this has laid a few Mercedes engine cars low over the season so far," said Allison on the team's Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show.
"They're not all identical, but they do sort of originate in the same broad part of the battery. And I think that most of the areas of risk have been understood and, with a bit of luck, when we start to sort of phase in the new modules into the racing season - we call the battery the 'module' - then our fortunes as a fleet should pick up.
"Obviously for us, that's an important thing. These DNFs are very, very painful."
On how they go about balancing the chase more performance from the car with shoring up reliability, Allison said: "You accept that there will be failure.
"We try to make sure that failure happens in testing or on rigs and that it happens as little as possible when you're out there trying to earn championship points.
"Now, clearly, it doesn't always work because occasionally the car will DNF and that is definitely a failure of our process and all of our attempts to deliver performance without the downside of that performance.
"But when a failure like that does happen, then in the first instance, and perhaps before it's fully understood, then the team will tend to take a slight half step backwards to be more cautious with the equipment, to push it slightly less hard, just to give a little bit of resilience to the kit that's obviously suffering.
"But a different part of the team will try to figure out what was the root cause of that failure to design that out, prove that out, and put something back on the table that is sufficiently robust.
"So you do a first intervention that is just to try to sort of give the vulnerable thing an easier life while then working on a proper, proper cure that lets you really cane it."
Allison confident Mercedes can hit back after Ferrari upgrade gains
Even before Antonelli pulled off track in the closing stages when his W17 went into electrical shutdown, Mercedes were poised to suffer their first race-day defeat of the season in Barcelona.
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton had combined strong pace and tyre management with a well-timed Virtual Safety Car on a three-stop strategy to seize into the lead into the race's closing stages, eventually winning by 19.6s from Russell.
Hamilton had also come within a tenth of beating Russell to pole on Saturday in Ferrari's most competitive showing of the season so far.
It came after the Scuderia introduced a big upgrade to their car in Spain on a weekend that rivals, including Mercedes, brought smaller additions.
Allison believes the pecking order will be continued to be strongly influenced by the in-season development race - but is confident Mercedes, who lead both world championship races, have the capability to keep nosing back ahead.
"I think what you're seeing mostly there is these are very young rules," said Allison.
"Our car was launched with a bit of a head start on the other teams, a head start that we've been able to maintain for a number of races. But the fact that the rules are so young mean it is relatively easy at the moment, because the rules are not yet as explored as they might be, to find performance.
"And a significant upgrade package is worth about as much as the gap we had between our car and the others at the beginning of the season.
"So if Ferrari bring an upgrade package to a race unanswered by one of our own, then it will close the gap that previously felt comfortable and I think that's mostly what we're seeing.
"Of course, we're not without guns in this fight and, in due course, our car will receive its own upgrades.
"As long as we can keep the overall development slope in the factory steep and then deploy it when we think it's sufficient to do so and suits us to do so, then we should be able to re-establish the gain that we had at the beginning of the year if our development slope in the factory is matching everyone else's."
Mercedes lead Ferrari by 72 points in the Constructors' Championship, while Antonelli is 41 points ahead of Hamilton and 50 points clear of Russell in the drivers' standings, with the Austrian Grand Prix next up this coming week.
Sky Sports F1's Austrian GP schedule
Thursday June 25
2pm: Drivers' press conference
5pm: Paddock Uncut
Friday June 26
8.50am: F3 Practice
10am: F2 Practice
12pm: Austrian GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)
1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
2.30pm: Team bosses' press conference
2.50pm: F2 Qualifying
3.35pm: Austrian GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 Show
Saturday June 27
9am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Austrian GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Austrian GP Qualifying build-up*
3pm: AUSTRIAN GP QUALIFYING*
5pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday June 28
7.35am: F3 Feature Race
9.05am: F2 Feature Race
10.50am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: Austrian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
2pm: THE AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX*
4pm: Austrian GP reaction: Chequered Flag
5pm: Ted's Notebook
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
Formula 1's European season continues with the Austrian Grand Prix on June 26-28, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
