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 robust 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 underneath the present set of technical rules, however successful on a road circuit the place tires can overheat is an indication of progress that it hopes to hold by way of the remainder of the season.
“We’ve got been doing quite a lot of work on taking care of the rear tires, notably at these tracks the place they get a really punishing time,” trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin mentioned. “The air could be very sizzling in Singapore. There’s additionally an terrible lot of traction. final 12 months, 2024, we did wrestle within the race.
“It’s good to see the advantage of a few of that work that is been occurring right here on the manufacturing unit 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 very popular otherwise you get these circuits the place there may be quite a lot of traction, we’ll begin to be aggressive.”
Regardless of the robust efficiency, Shovlin identified the similarities in observe traits to Canada – the place Russell additionally received this 12 months – and emphasised that he does not anticipate Mercedes to be the crew to beat subsequent outing at COTA.
“Simply to try to handle expectations right here,” he mentioned. “Should you take a look at the circuits that we have been robust at, and notably the races that we have received this 12 months – Montreal, Singapore – they’re comparatively low-speed tracks, and there isn’t any doubt that this automobile is working nicely 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 have 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. Should you take a look at a observe like Austin, it is bought a really, very quick sector one, so we’d like to ensure we will 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 crew has actually been fired up from this and that is given us quite a lot of vitality to take into these remaining six races. [There are] very completely different circuits developing, we’ll must do lots to adapt the automobile, however we’re positively not going to surrender the battle.”
