Mercedes boss admits mistake in partnering with rival F1 team to supply engines

Mercedes AMG F1 team principal Toto Wolff recently admitted that they made a mistake partnering up with McLaren to supply them with power units. McLaren has overtaken the German team in recent times, having won the constructors' title in 2024 before dominating the series in 2025.

Mercedes signed a deal with McLaren to provide them with engines from 2021 onwards. In fact, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the only major change in the McLaren F1 challengers from 2020 to 2021 was the incorporation of the new power unit.

Since late 2023, McLaren has overtaken Mercedes in terms of their pace and engine optimization. In 2024, the Papaya team even won the constructors' championship, while the Silver Arrows finished fourth in the standings.

Now, McLaren have continued their dominance into 2025, having won 9 of the first 12 races this season. In the wake of this, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff recently joked that the German team should not have signed the power-unit deal with McLaren.

When asked on Sky Italia about how McLaren are quicker than them, while being a customer team, Wolff said (via RacingNews365):

"That's also hard for me to explain. Look at where they were three, four years ago, when we signed the deal with them that they were going to use our fast engines for the next few years."

"Then they were 18th and it was easy to make such a decision. With the knowledge of today, I don't know if it was the most intelligent choice in my life to make that deal with them, haha," added Wolff.

McLaren remain the only Mercedes-powered team without an engine-related retirement in the 2025 F1 season. Reliability has been a problem this year, especially for Williams, but the Woking-based team has seemingly optimized their power unit to perfection.

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff credits McLaren engineering for their F1 success

Toto Wolff with McLaren chief Zak Brown at the Chinese Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Mercedes F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has credited McLaren's engineering team for the British team's dominance in F1 in recent months. McLaren currently sit atop the constructors' standings, 238 points ahead of Ferrari in P2.

Speaking to Sky Italia, Wolff highlighted what he believes to be the secret behind McLaren's pace, especially in hot weather.

"They have it really well together in terms of engineering and that's why they perform so insanely well, especially in hot conditions," said Wolff.

Hot conditions appear to be his team's biggest problem. The W16, much like the W15 before it, seems to be competitive at the front of the field in cold conditions, while looking like the fourth quickest car in hot weather.

Wolff highlighted this discrepancy, explaining that they were the quickest team in Canada, where it was cold, but a minute off the lead in Austria just a week after, due to the hot climate.