Mercedes will be looking to halt Red Bull’s momentum next weekend at the Formula 1 British Grand Prix following five back-to-back victories, which has propelled the Milton Keynes team to the top of both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings.
Mercedes look unlikely to regain their dominance this season, but are hopeful they can at least match Red Bull’s now superior performance to start clawing back some points, starting with the next race at Silverstone.
A maximum 49 points will be on offer, five more than at a normal event thanks to the debut of ‘Sprint Qualifying’.
Mercedes, despite recently stating they had halted development of the W12 before backtracking, will introduce what trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin described as a “quite exciting” upgrade for the race.
“The car hadn’t been working particularly well at Austria, so it had been very difficult trying to get the balance right and the engineers and the drivers were having to work very hard on that,” he said in a Mercedes debrief video. “It’s nice to get to the end of it.
“We are looking forward to Silverstone, we’ve got a good update coming there that’s quite exciting.”
Shovlin is hopeful that a strong British crowd rooting for Lewis Hamilton, as well as their history of doing well at Silverstone, will see their fortunes turnaround.
“We are looking forward to the home crowd, there is obviously a lot of Lewis fans that are going to be there, and it is also a track where our car has worked well. So, we’ve got a few days just to regroup, to analyse the results of those and turn around the cars and get them ready for the next race in that updated bodywork, but we are optimistic for a better weekend.
“Will Silverstone suit the car better? Well, it’s fair to say that Austria is a track that over the years, we have struggled at. It’s a difficult circuit and one that doesn’t seem to suit our car and we are trying to understand those issues.
“Silverstone on the contrary though, is one that we have tended to go very well at and also Lewis really enjoys that circuit. Some of it is the layout and the high-speed nature but also the fantastic support he has there from the home crowd. So, we are looking forward to it, it’s still going to be a challenging race weekend.
“We’ve got the sprint format to contend with, but hopefully we can put on a better showing and take that fight to Red Bull.”
