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 increased temperatures underneath 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 means of the remainder of the season.
“We have now been doing plenty 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 happening right here on the manufacturing facility over the course of the event of this automobile. And hopefully we’re seeing a progressive development the place both when the solar is shining and it is very popular otherwise you get these circuits the place there’s plenty of traction, we’ll begin to be aggressive.”
Regardless of the sturdy efficiency, Shovlin identified the similarities in monitor 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 day trip at COTA.
“Simply to try to handle expectations right here,” he mentioned. “In case you have a look at the circuits that we have been sturdy 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 huge 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 making an attempt 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 received 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 automobile can nonetheless win races, we noticed an excellent efficiency from George, the entire crew has actually been fired up from this and that is given us plenty of vitality to take into these ultimate six races. [There are] very totally different circuits arising, we will must do rather a lot to adapt the automobile, however we’re positively not going to surrender the struggle.”
