21/06/2023
NEWS STORY
Buoyed by the success of its first upgrade package, Toto Wolff reveals that Mercedes will present a "larger" raft of updates at Silverstone next month.
Though the much-anticipated package was first introduced in Monaco, the very nature of the Principality's streets made it impossible to assess the impact. However, a week later, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell joined Max Verstappen on the Barcelona podium.
Out-paced by Verstappen, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso in qualifying in Canada, the Silver Arrows were promoted to the second row following the penalty meted out to the German.
While Hamilton caught Alonso napping at the start, the Spaniard subsequently repassed him, the pair enjoying a cat-and-mouse battle for the remainder of the race. However, an early encounter with the infamous Montreal barriers effectively ruled Russell out of the equation until he succumbed to a brake issue.
Nonetheless, with Hamilton scoring his second successive podium finish, Mercedes is happy with the progress made, as it anticipates further upgrades over the weeks ahead.
"We are bringing a larger one to Silverstone, then we should have another one before the shutdown," confirmed Wolff.
"It's just that the learnings have accelerated a lot since we changed some of the conceptual architecture," he added. "There should be decent steps coming in the next four races."
The Austrian revealed that of particular importance is the accuracy in terms of the correlation between the on-track performance and wind tunnel and CFD data.
"We are understanding the simulations better," he said. "The time is correlating what we are seeing on track and that's been our problem over the one and a half years.
"We've seen good performance gains that are coming in the tunnel, we are seeing better understanding of what the car needs in order to go fast, what the set-ups need to look like.
"So generally, the steps are getting bigger. I think we are making good inroads."