Mercedes reveals timeline and target for long-awaited F1 upgrade

Mercedes has outlined what it hopes to achieve when its long-awaited Formula 1 upgrade arrives. 

Out of the top four F1 teams, Mercedes is the only one not to have brought a significant upgrade to its 2026 challenger across the European leg of the season. The Silver Arrows’ last major car update was introduced at the Canadian Grand Prix in May. 

After winning the first six grands prix of the campaign, Mercedes has taken victory in just four of the last eight races, with McLaren and Ferrari reducing the deficit thanks to an aggressive development push. 

Mercedes is readying to deploy a substantial upgrade at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on 2-4 October, which follows this weekend’s 15th round of the season in Azerbaijan. 

The German manufacturer is hopeful the upgrade will help the team get back into pole position contention, having failed to top qualifying at each of the past four rounds. 

“We haven't got much new coming to Baku, but actually that's a circuit that's more about drag than downforce,” Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast. 

“So the car was good in Monza, hopefully it will work well in Baku. But, you need a car that can have a good straight line speed.

“There's other things, though, you need in Baku, like the sort of street circuit nature, almost that Monaco-esque being able to deal with the low speed, keeping all the wheels on the ground.

“And then the updates, well, they're going to come Malaysia onwards and hopefully we'll make a decent step.

“I don't think we're going to be out front by miles, but hopefully we'll be back into a position where we can really go into qualifying, knowing that we're fighting for pole.”

Mercedes secured pole at the opening 10 rounds but has not had the fastest car in qualifying since Andrea Kimi Antonelli took pole at the Belgian Grand Prix. 

McLaren’s Lando Norris has taken three of the four on offer since then, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly claimed a stunning maiden F1 pole at Monza. 

“Early in the season, we tended to go thinking, we have a car that if we do a really good job, it should be on pole,” Shovlin continued. 

“We should be fighting for a race win. Whereas now the margin between finishing first and finishing sixth is one or two tenths and it's difficult to predict because Monza is a unique track.

“It needs a car that's quite slippy with low drag and then new circuit like Madring couldn't be more different. But we just focus on getting the most out of the car and if we win, awesome.”