Mercedes’ Montreal upgrade has changed the shape of the front of Formula 1, and Martin Brundle believes it was enough to push the team back to the head of the pack. The Sky Sports F1 pundit said the revised car gave Mercedes “a small but undeniable advantage” at the Canadian Grand Prix, even though George Russell’s weekend ended in retirement in Montreal.
That is why Russell’s name is being searched now. He started from Sprint pole, was best away, and still left Montreal without a finish, a result that sat awkwardly beside Mercedes’ return to pace. Brundle also pointed to Kimi Antonelli trying to go around the outside of Russell into Turn One, one of two mighty battles the pair had over the weekend, as Mercedes found itself fighting at the sharp end again.
Brundle’s bigger conclusion was about the balance of power. He said he did not expect Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull to be so close so quickly, after qualifying pace for the weekend was covered by just a third of a second across the top seven. In that kind of field, one upgrade matters. So does one mistake, one retirement, or one car that suddenly has the edge for a race weekend.
McLaren were still very much part of the picture. Brundle noted that Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri looked strong, especially in the second half of the Sprint, even if the team had new medium tyres while Mercedes were on used rubber. He also singled out Lewis Hamilton’s best race result for Ferrari, a reminder that the front of the grid is crowded enough now that a small gain can move a team from chasing to leading.
There was also a human edge to the weekend inside Mercedes. Brundle said Antonelli “lost his head a bit” during the Sprint, to the point that Toto Wolff intervened on the radio, and he added that the youngster was fortunate to have both Bono and Wolff to calm things down. It was a rare glimpse of how quickly pressure builds when the margins are this tight and the cars are finally close enough to race wheel-to-wheel.
Montreal, with its long straights, heavy braking zones and old-school demand for clean racing, offered the first real evidence that Mercedes’ upgrade has altered the order again. The question now is not whether the team has found a step forward, but whether it can keep that edge when the calendar moves on to Monaco. Every session of the Monaco Grand Prix runs live on Sky Sports F1 from June 5-7, and that next round will show whether Montreal was a breakthrough or just a sharp, temporary spike in form.
