Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff warned that the Silver Arrows “can’t compete for a championship” while power‑unit reliability remains erratic. The warning followed Kimi Antonelli’s retirement on the final lap of the Barcelona‑Catalunya Grand Prix after his car shut down with five laps left, a failure reminiscent of George Russell’s battery loss in Canada. It was Antonelli’s first retirement after five straight wins.

Antonelli had just passed Russell for second place before the failure, cutting his drivers’ lead to 41 points over Lewis Hamilton and 50 points over Russell. Mercedes’ constructors gap shrank to 72 points after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also retired with a hydraulic problem. Wolff quantified the damage, saying the team lost 25 points in Montreal and another 18 in Barcelona.

Wolff stressed finishing races is the baseline for championship contention, vowing the team will leave no stone unturned to root out the fault. He added that repeated DNFs erode morale and sponsor confidence. With the Austrian Grand Prix looming, Mercedes must stabilise its power unit if it hopes to stay within striking distance of Ferrari and Red Bull.