Mercedes’ recurring problem with poor race starts has become an urgent threat to its title bid, team principal Toto Wolff warned after both Kimi Antonelli and George Russell suffered bad getaways this season. Wolff called the start issues “not acceptable” for a championship-contending team and blamed them on team-side clutch and grip estimates. The problem has been dramatic in scale: Antonelli dropped a total of 26 places on opening-lap incidents across the opening weekends and the Miami sprint and main race. Wolff said the weakness is solvable but must be fixed quickly, and he noted the FIA was not planning further changes to the start procedure, so the solution must come from within Mercedes.

The start troubles have cost track position even as Mercedes retained strong race pace. Antonelli still won the Miami Grand Prix from pole, his third consecutive victory and the first time a driver converted his first three pole positions into three wins, moving 20 points clear in the Drivers’ Standings. Mercedes has four wins from the opening four Grands Prix. Wolff said the inconsistent starts nearly cost Antonelli the Miami result and nearly prompted radio intervention over repeated track-limit warnings, and he praised race engineer Bono for calm handling of those warnings. George Russell recovered to fourth in Miami after a difficult weekend that included contact and a clipped rival, showing both drivers were affected by compromised opening laps.

Mercedes has already started targeted fixes and development work. Engineers identified a three- to four-tenth sector-one deficit and simplified the car’s energy-deployment strategy to correct that shortfall. The team is preparing a first major upgrade package, including planned power updates, for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal and has elevated improved race starts to a top priority alongside those upgrades. Wolff said better launches, together with the pending power upgrades, would be needed to turn the team’s existing pace into more comfortable race wins as rivals McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari brought significant upgrades at Miami and the development race intensified.