Wolff calls Abu Dhabi ‘mediocre’ – but admits he’s ‘pleased’ Mercedes finished P2 in championship

Mercedes secured second place in the Constructors’ Championship behind winners McLaren courtesy of George Russell’s fifth in Abu Dhabi. It meant the Silver Arrows finished 18 points ahead of Red Bull – but while team boss Toto Wolff was pleased, he was not over the moon with the race itself.

Russell started fourth but lost places off the line courtesy of some wheelspin, and from there struggled for pace and could not catch up to the back of Charles Leclerc ahead to challenge for fourth or even the rostrum.

Kimi Antonelli had an even more frustrating race down the order, finishing well out of the points in 15th place. But Russell’s points were enough to ensure Mercedes ended the season with that P2 in the Teams’ Championship, despite Max Verstappen winning the race for Red Bull.

“Our race can be summed up in one word: mediocre. It was a lonely one for George who wasn’t threatened from behind but didn’t have the pace of the front four cars,” Wolff explained.

“He was managing his tyres to bring the car home on the one-stop, and he did that successfully. For Kimi, he tried his best from a difficult starting position, but we just didn’t have the speed in the car to enable him to get back into the points.

“It is not the way we wanted to end the year, but we can be pleased we secured P2 in the Constructors’. Since the midpoint of the season, that has been our aim.”

McLaren were runaway winners of the Championship, scoring 833 points to Mercedes’ 469. It leaves Mercedes without a Constructors’ crown since 2021, but they did at least improve on last season’s fourth-place finish.

“It is not what we as Mercedes ultimately want to be fighting for though, and hopefully we can prove ourselves worthy of being in a world title fight next year,” Wolff concluded.

Mercedes can at least point to the fact that Russell took two wins in a season dominated by McLaren and Verstappen as a positive, along with the introduction of rookie Antonelli to a full-time race seat, with the teenager having some standout performances towards the end of the year and taking three podiums.

But with the regulations set to change for 2026, it remains to be seen if Mercedes will start the next era as strong as they did with the dawn of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014.