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 larger temperatures below the present set of technical rules, however successful on a avenue circuit the place tires can overheat is an indication of progress that it hopes to hold by the remainder of the season.
“We have now been doing a number 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 wrestle within the race.
“It’s good to see the good thing about a few of that work that is been occurring right here on the manufacturing unit over the course of the event of this automotive. And hopefully we’re seeing a progressive pattern the place both when the solar is shining and it is extremely popular otherwise you get these circuits the place there’s a number 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 12 months – and emphasised that he would not count on Mercedes to be the workforce to beat subsequent day out at COTA.
“Simply to attempt to handle expectations right here,” he stated. “When you take a look at the circuits that we have been robust at, and significantly the races that we have gained this 12 months – Montreal, Singapore – they’re comparatively low-speed tracks, and there is no doubt that this automotive 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 huge 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 definitely one thing that is coming. When you take a look at a monitor like Austin, it is acquired 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 automotive can nonetheless win races, we noticed an excellent efficiency from George, the entire workforce has actually been fired up from this and that is given us a number of power to take into these ultimate six races. [There are] very totally different circuits developing, we’ll must do rather a lot to adapt the automotive, however we’re positively not going to surrender the combat.”
