The current world champions are preparing several improvements for their current F1 W12 car in the hope that this will also help them fight Red Bull, which has significantly improved its RB16B in the last few races.
After an even start to the season, in which Mercedes celebrated in three of the first four races, Red Bull took control of both championships thanks to a series of minor improvements to their car, and Mercedes hadn’t brought improvements to its car in a long time.
Although team boss Wolff said Mercedes is fully focused on 2022 and will no longer make improvements to the current car, technical director Allison soon denied it and said the improvements they have been working on in recent weeks should still arrive.
Hamilton said after Austria he did not expect the improvements he would bring to Silverstone to equate them with Red Bull, and the head of operations at the Shovlin track confirmed that he would bring ‘exciting improvements’ to his home race.
“We’re looking forward to Silverstone, we have a good update package for that track which is pretty exciting,” Shovlin said in Mercedes’ video debrief after Austrian GP.
“We’re looking forward to the home crowd. There are a lot of Lewis fans, but it’s also the track where our car worked well.”
“We have a few days to prepare, analyze the results and prepare our cars for the next race with improved bodywork, but we are optimistic and believe we will have a better weekend.”
“Will Silverstone suit our car better? It’s fair to say that Austria is a track we’ve struggled with in recent years. It’s a difficult track and one of those that doesn’t suit our car and we’re constantly trying to understand those problems.”
“Silverstone, on the other hand, is one of the tracks we’ve always done well on, and Lewis really enjoys that track as well.”
“Part of the reason for that is the configuration of the track and its high speed nature, but there’s also the fantastic support he has from the home crowd. So we’re looking forward to that race, it’s still going to be a challenging weekend.”
“We also have a new sprint format, but we hope to be better and fight Red Bull.”
Mercedes has only lost once at Silverstone since 2013 when they were beaten by Vettel and Ferrari in 2018 when German driver increased his lead in the championship to eight points. Mercedes also won every pole position at Silverstone since 2013.
