Key areas left to improve with Mercedes ‘one upgrade away from victory’
Since debuting a major upgrade package at the Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes have gone on to claim their first double podium finish of the season in Barcelona, before Lewis Hamilton took third in Montreal last time out.
Mercedes successfully managed to reduce or erase many of the weaknesses of their W14 challenger and have halved their deficit to Red Bull, according to a report by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.
The W14 has become more predictable and is more stable on the brakes, giving Hamilton and George Russell renewed confidence.
Top speed and the performance of their Drag Reduction System (DRS) are two areas where Mercedes can find the biggest gains relative to Red Bull.
Another targeted area for improvement is traction out of low-speed corners, something seven-time world champion Hamilton encouraged the team to work on after the Canadian Grand Prix.
With a large upgrade pencilled-in to arrive at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, and a second planned before the F1 summer shutdown in August, Mercedes are becoming increasingly confident about catching Red Bull.
"We are only an upgrade away from a victory,” a Mercedes engineer is quoted by AMuS.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff added: “Since we changed the concept of the car, we have learned a lot. The correlation between simulation and racetrack has become much better. We are now implementing this step by step."
