Mercedes is hopeful that the work it has done to improve its tire management will allow it to be more competitive on a wider range of circuits, following victory at the Singapore Grand Prix.
George Russell delivered a strong weekend in Singapore, taking pole position and winning the race, taking his second win of the season. Mercedes traditionally struggles with higher temperatures under the current technical regulations, but winning on a street circuit where the tires can overheat is a sign of progress that the company hopes to continue for the rest of the season.
“We’ve done a lot of work on maintaining the rear tyres, especially on those circuits where they have a hard time,” said technical director Andrew Shovlin. “The air is very hot in Singapore. There is also a lot of traction. Looking at last year, 2024, we struggled in the race.
“It’s nice to see the benefits of some of the work that’s been done here at the factory during the development of this car. And hopefully we’ll see a progressive trend where when the sun is shining and it’s very hot, or on tracks with a lot of traction, we’ll start to become competitive.”
Despite the strong performance, Shovlin pointed out the similarities in track characteristics with Canada – where Russell also won this year – and stressed that he does not expect Mercedes to be the team to beat at COTA next time.
“Just to try to manage expectations here,” he said. “If you look at the circuits where we have been strong, and especially the races we have won this year – Montreal, Singapore – they are relatively low speeds, and there is no doubt that this car does well in those slow corners where we seem to have very good grip. The drivers have very good confidence in the big braking zones.
“What we haven’t had as much of yet on those circuits is the content of the fast cornering, and that’s perhaps an area where we’ve struggled a little bit. We’re still working on that, we’re still trying to find every little bit that there is in the set-up, but that’s definitely something that’s coming. If you look at a circuit like Austin, it’s got a very, very fast sector, so we have to make sure we can deliver in that area.”
“It was encouraging to see that the car can still win races. We saw a brilliant performance from George. The whole team is really excited about this and that has given us a lot of energy to take into the last six races. [There are] There are very different circuits coming up, we will have to do a lot to adapt the car, but we are certainly not going to give up the fight.”
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