George Russell has hinted that the upcoming British Grand Prix could see significant updates for the Mercedes team following their successful performance in Spain.
After introducing upgrades to the W14 in Monaco, Mercedes achieved a double podium finish in Barcelona, with Russell finishing behind Lewis Hamilton in third and second place.
Despite acknowledging the favorable weather conditions in Spain, team boss Toto Wolff attempted to manage expectations. However, Mercedes is determined to make extensive changes to the W14, having ordered a design concept change due to a slower-than-expected start to the 2023 season.
Russell suggested that fans should keep an eye on the British Grand Prix in early July to see what updates the team brings.
“Yeah, Silverstone we’re excited for,” Russell told Sky Sports F1 in Barcelona.
“I think we’ll be in a good place there to fight for a good result. We might have a couple more things coming for Silverstone.
“But we need to not get too carried away with just this one result. The team have done an amazing job to bring these upgrades.
“I think Aston and Ferrari probably underperformed a little bit in the race today. So let’s see what the next races bring, but definitely a great step forward.”
Andrew Shovlin, the trackside engineering director at Mercedes, concurred with Toto Wolff’s assessment that their car performed admirably in Barcelona because the circuit suited their inherent advantages. However, Shovlin acknowledged that the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix would bring an entirely different set of challenges for the team to navigate.
“The fact is that update kit works very well around circuits like Barcelona with a lot of high-speed performance, although the car itself probably would have been okay there because we’ve been better at the fast circuits than front limited tracks,” Shovlin said in Mercedes’ post-race debrief.
“So we ended up with a really good balance, really good race pace. Now where we’re going to go next week, Montreal, it’s a very different circuit, low speed corners, quite a lot of straight line full throttle and we would expect more of a challenge there.
“So we’re not thinking that we’ll be going in nipping at the heels of Red Bull. We’re going in there prepared for a battle with Ferrari, Aston Martin, maybe even Alpine.”
