Mercedes hopes the work it has done to improve tire management following its Singapore Grand Prix victory will make it more competitive on a wider range of circuits.
George Russell had a strong weekend in Singapore, taking pole position and winning the race, his second win of the season. Mercedes has traditionally struggled with high temperatures under its current set of technical regulations, but the win on the street circuit, where tires can overheat, is a sign of progress it hopes to continue throughout the rest of the season.
“We’ve done a lot of work on taking care of our rear tires, especially at the track where they record really tough times,” said Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin. “The air in Singapore is very hot. There is also a lot of traction. If we look back at last year, 2024, we struggled in the races.
“It’s nice to see some of the work that’s been done here at the factory benefiting in the development of this car, and hopefully we’ll see a progressive trend where we start to be competitive when the sun is shining and it’s really hot, or when we’re driving on circuits where there’s a lot of traction.”
Despite the strong performance, Shovlin pointed out similarities in the track’s characteristics to Canada (where Russell also won this year) and stressed that he does not expect Mercedes to be the winning team at the next COTA.
“We’re just trying to manage expectations here,” he said. “If you look at the circuits that we’ve been good at, especially the races we’ve won this year, Montreal and Singapore, they’re relatively slow circuits and there’s no question that the car is working well in the slow corner areas where the grip seems to be very good. The drivers have very high confidence in the big braking zones.”
“What we haven’t done as much on these tracks is the high-speed cornering content and that’s probably an area where we’re struggling a little bit. We’re still working on that and trying to find all the little pieces that are in our setup, but it’s definitely coming. When you look at a track like Austin, we have a very, very fast sector one, so we’ve got to make sure we can perform in that area.”
“It was reassuring to know that the car could still win races, and we saw a great performance from George, and it really motivated the whole team and gave us a lot of energy for the remaining six races. We have a very different circuit ahead of us (coming up) so we have to do a lot to adapt the car, but we’re definitely not going to give up the fight.”
