Mercedes Formula 1 team boss Toto Wolff has provided an update on Mercedes’ development schedule for its W14 car.
After the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this year, Wolff conceded that the car’s original concept which was unveiled last year wouldn’t bring it back to front-running competition.
In the months that followed, it produced a new development path, which hit the track for the first time at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Mercedes has been upbeat over its new direction, particularly after the Spanish Grand Prix where it claimed a double podium result.
With further upgrades in the pipeline, Wolff stated that the team expects the next major changes to be fitted for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
“We are bringing a larger one to Silverstone, then we should have another one before [the summer] shutdown,” Wolff said.
“It’s just that the learnings have accelerated a lot since we changed some of the conceptual architecture. There should be decent steps coming in the next four races.”
Mercedes returned to the podium in Canada on Sunday as Lewis Hamilton crossed the line in third place, behind race-winner Max Verstappen and second-placed Fernando Alonso.
The pace during the weekend came as somewhat of a surprise to Mercedes, who was expecting to struggle more at Montreal due to the numerous slow-speed corners around the track.
Wolff added that he is encouraged by Mercedes’ correlation from the simulator to the track since taking a new development direction, which has been an area it has struggled with since 2022.
“I think we are understanding the simulations better,” he said. “The time is correlating what we are seeing on track and that’s been our problem over the one and a half years.
“We’ve seen good performance gains that are coming in in the tunnel, we are seeing better understanding of what the car needs in order to go fast, what the set-ups need to look like.
“So generally, the steps are getting bigger. I think we are making good inroads.”
While Mercedes was able to celebrate Hamilton’s podium, it was a bleaker picture on the other side of the garage as George Russell was forced to retire.
