Mercedes is hopeful the work it has been doing to enhance its tire administration will permit it to be extra aggressive at a wider vary of tracks, following its victory within the Singapore Grand Prix.
George Russell delivered a robust weekend in Singapore to take pole place and win the race, incomes his second victory of the season. Mercedes has historically struggled in increased temperatures beneath the present set of technical laws, however successful on a road circuit the place tires can overheat is an indication of progress that it hopes to hold via the remainder of the season.
“Now we have been doing lots of work on taking care of the rear tires, significantly at these tracks the place they get a really punishing time,” trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin stated. “The air may be very sizzling in Singapore. There’s additionally an terrible lot of traction. final 12 months, 2024, we did battle within the race.
“It’s good to see the good thing about a few of that work that is been happening right here on the manufacturing unit over the course of the event of this automotive. And hopefully we’re seeing a progressive development the place both when the solar is shining and it is highly regarded otherwise you get these circuits the place there’s lots of traction, we’ll begin to be aggressive.”
Regardless of the sturdy efficiency, Shovlin identified the similarities in observe traits to Canada – the place Russell additionally gained this 12 months – and emphasised that he would not anticipate Mercedes to be the crew to beat subsequent outing at COTA.
“Simply to attempt to handle expectations right here,” he stated. “If you happen to take a look at the circuits that we have been sturdy at, and significantly the races that we have gained this 12 months – Montreal, Singapore – they’re comparatively low-speed tracks, and there is not any doubt that this automotive is working nicely at that slow-speed nook area the place we appear to have superb grip. The drivers have gotten superb confidence within the massive braking zones.
“What we’ve not had a lot of in these tracks is the high-speed cornering content material, and that is maybe an space the place we have struggled a bit. We’re nonetheless engaged on that, we’re nonetheless making an attempt to search for each little bit that is there in setup, however that is actually one thing that is coming. If you happen to take a look at a observe like Austin, it is obtained a really, very quick sector one, so we want to verify we are able to carry out in that space.
“It was encouraging to see that the automotive can nonetheless win races, we noticed a superb efficiency from George, the entire crew has actually been fired up from this and that is given us lots of power to take into these last six races. [There are] very totally different circuits arising, we will need to do rather a lot to adapt the automotive, however we’re positively not going to surrender the combat.”
