09/07/2021
NEWS STORY
Keen to put a difficult triple-header behind it, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin reveals that the German team has an exciting update for Silverstone.
Just over a week ago, many were concerned, particularly Lewis Hamilton, that Mercedes was easing up on its 2021 upgrades and instead focussing fully on 2022, since this was the message being put out by team boss Toto Wolff.
However, as subsequently confirmed by James Allison, there will be upgrades aimed at getting the German team's 2021 title bids back on track and the first of these will appear next weekend at Silverstone.
"We are looking forward to Silverstone, we've got a good update coming there that's quite exciting," said Shovlin in the team's latest video debrief.
"We are looking forward to the home crowd," he said of the event, which has been won by Hamilton six times in the last seven years, "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.
"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," he added, "but hopefully we can put on a better showing and take the fight to Red Bull."