Crew principal Toto Wolff expects Mercedes to make an even bigger step ahead on the subsequent two races in Hungary and Belgium on account of deliberate upgrades, following its win on the British Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton gained at Silverstone for a file ninth time final Sunday, having began second to teammate George Russell who was pressured to retire with a mechanical difficulty. The efficiency stage from Mercedes got here at a race the place it had launched largely circuit-specific developments, and Wolff says the subsequent spherical of upgrades was really focused on the ultimate two races earlier than the summer time break.
“When you think about 5 races in the past we weren’t even contenders for the rostrum, which appeared just like the third yr of non-performance… after which it clicked,” Wolff stated. “Immediately, all the things which didn’t make sense made sense. The event path, or the outcomes of the event instructions are like within the previous days — we’re discovering efficiency and we’re placing it on the automobile. It interprets into lap time.
“That wasn’t the case for the final two years. And there’s extra to come back by way of efficiency. We’re bringing upgrades to Budapest and Spa.
“However on the opposite aspect we mustn’t get carried away. We had the win [with Russell in Austria] benefitting from them [Max Verstappen and Lando Norris] tangling however [at Silverstone] we had an trustworthy win. We had the true tempo. You may see George and Lewis within the lead and virtually below all circumstances we had been within the lead. We’re there.”
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Wolff agrees with Russell’s evaluation that Mercedes has confirmed itself to be firmly within the combine with Pink Bull and McLaren with its Silverstone efficiency, relatively than being overly reliant on monitor circumstances.
“Yeah, it does really feel that means. As a result of final weekend [in Austria] we weren’t far off, while you have a look at the hole we had earlier than they crashed. It was almost two-tenths a lap, a bit extra. And that’s the closest we’ve been for a very long time on a monitor we didn’t like a lot previously. That type of gave us hints that it may very well be getting a lot better.
“Truthfully, we didn’t assume it could be Silverstone as a result of there was barely something [new on the car] — we had been extra anticipating Budapest or Spa. However I agree with George, we justified what we do is true in the intervening time.”
