Mercedes has confirmed it will bring its first major upgrade of the 2026 Formula 1 season to the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend.

F1 returns to action in Montreal following a three-week break with Mercedes looking to continue its unbeaten start to the campaign.

Mercedes has claimed pole position and won all four of the opening races, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli clinching three consecutive victories to build a surprise 20-point advantage over team-mate George Russell in the championship.

Despite Mercedes’ strong start to the season, its rivals - especially McLaren - closed the gap by bringing significant upgrades at the last round in Miami.

Mercedes did not update its W17 challenger in Miami, opting instead to debut a bigger upgrade in Canada.

“Our competitors took a step forward in Miami and we need to respond; seven Grands Prix in 10 weekends before shutdown is an opportunity to do that and build momentum,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said.

“We bring our first update package of the year to Montreal, but we know that performance is only performance once it is delivered on track.

“Despite being in the middle of May, we are just four races into the season. There is a long year ahead and, whilst this is an important weekend, it will not decide any outcomes.

“We will stay balanced, keep learning, and execute each weekend as well as we can. We won't get too high when we succeed or too low in the difficult moments; that is as true for our drivers as it is for the rest of the team.”

McLaren not done with development

Reigning world champion Lando Norris beat Antonelli to pole for the Miami sprint and went on to lead a dominant McLaren 1-2 in Saturday’s shortened race, before having to settle for second behind Antonelli in the main grand prix.

McLaren nevertheless made an encouraging step forward compared to Mercedes and will continue to bring new parts to their MCL40, which was heavily revised in Miami.

"We feel extremely satisfied with the weekend, very encouraged, not only because in a single weekend we scored more points than the three previous races, but also because of the trend that we have established," McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said.

"We know that we have some more upgrades coming, which are kind of coming from the same group, so we are optimistic that they may allow us to take some further steps forward.

"I think Mercedes still possess a couple of tenths advantage on anybody else. This was the most noticeable today in the race and [in grand prix qualifying]. I think in the first sprint section of the weekend, for some reason Mercedes didn't express its full potential.

"So, I think Mercedes is still the best team, probably because we don't have many high speed corners here it's less noticeable than some other tracks. But I think they also did a good job of optimising what they had after having learned from the sprint qualifying and the sprint race."