Mercedes is hopeful the work it has been doing to enhance its tire administration will enable it to be extra aggressive at a wider vary of tracks, following its victory within the Singapore Grand Prix.
George Russell delivered a powerful weekend in Singapore to take pole place and win the race, incomes his second victory of the season. Mercedes has historically struggled in greater temperatures beneath the present set of technical laws, however profitable on a road circuit the place tires can overheat is an indication of progress that it hopes to hold by means of the remainder of the season.
“We’ve 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 could be very sizzling in Singapore. There’s additionally an terrible lot of traction. final yr, 2024, we did battle within the race.
“It’s good to see the advantage of a few of that work that is been happening right here on the manufacturing facility over the course of the event of this automobile. And hopefully we’re seeing a progressive pattern 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 robust efficiency, Shovlin identified the similarities in monitor traits to Canada – the place Russell additionally gained this yr – and emphasised that he does not anticipate Mercedes to be the group to beat subsequent outing at COTA.
“Simply to attempt to handle expectations right here,” he stated. “In case you have a look at the circuits that we have been robust at, and significantly the races that we have gained this yr – Montreal, Singapore – they’re comparatively low-speed tracks, and there isn’t any doubt that this automobile is working properly at that slow-speed nook area the place we appear to have excellent grip. The drivers have gotten excellent 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 attempting to search for each little bit that is there in setup, however that is actually one thing that is coming. In case you have a look at a monitor like Austin, it is bought a really, very quick sector one, so we’d like to ensure we are able to carry out in that space.
“It was encouraging to see that the automobile can nonetheless win races, we noticed a superb efficiency from George, the entire group has actually been fired up from this and that is given us lots of power to take into these ultimate six races. [There are] very totally different circuits developing, we will should do quite a bit to adapt the automobile, however we’re undoubtedly not going to surrender the struggle.”
