Mercedes to Fight Back with Updates in Belgium and Hungary After Difficult F1 Races
Following its surprise victory in Canada, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team has faced significant setbacks in the following rounds in Austria and Great Britain. The W16 has shown notable weaknesses in tire management and overall balance, particularly through high-speed corners. Now, with the team determined to regain competitiveness, Mercedes is preparing a package of updates that will debut at both Spa-Francorchamps and the Hungaroring — key events before the mid-season break. These upgrades are crucial not only to reverse the current trend but also to prevent Ferrari from pulling further ahead in the Constructors’ Championship standings.
Reviewing the most recent race weekends, two major teams have emerged as the disappointments of this phase of the season: Red Bull Racing and Mercedes. For Red Bull, the back-to-back races in Austria and Great Britain represented a critical chance to re-enter the fight for the championship — particularly in the battle against McLaren. However, the team’s lackluster performance instead confirmed that the gap to the front is widening rather than shrinking.
Red Bull now appears to have all but conceded the title to McLaren, with the team admitting that the championship momentum has firmly shifted toward the Woking-based outfit. For Mercedes, however, the scenario is more complex and filled with both concern and cautious optimism.
After George Russell’s victory in Canada, hopes were high that Mercedes had finally unlocked more consistent performance from the W16, even on tracks that did not naturally suit its strengths. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, with its heavy traction zones and slower corners, masked some of the car’s balance issues and helped control thermal tire degradation, despite the high ambient temperatures.
Unfortunately, the following races told a different story. Both the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone Circuit exposed the W16’s ongoing vulnerability in high-speed corners. The team struggled with overheating tires, especially in qualifying sessions, which undermined driver confidence at the very moments when commitment is most crucial.
In Austria, the high-speed sequences placed extreme thermal stress on the tires, which did not have time to cool between corners. This led to rapid tire degradation, hampering race pace far more than single-lap performance. Mercedes ended the race with a deficit of over one minute to the race leader and more than 30 seconds behind Ferrari — a clear indicator of a weekend that went wrong from start to finish.
While the team had anticipated some challenges on these circuits, there was still hope for a stronger showing in qualifying, given that in similar scenarios earlier this season, Mercedes had occasionally capitalized on its one-lap pace. That’s why Silverstone, in particular, delivered a double disappointment.
Even with cooler temperatures — especially on Saturday — Mercedes never truly looked like a contender for the front row. George Russell’s fourth-place start was achieved only in the final moments of Q3 and seemed more the result of an outstanding individual lap than a reflection of genuine W16 competitiveness.
“It’s been a tough couple of races for us in Austria and Great Britain. We’ve only managed a fifth and a tenth place — results that fall well below our expectations,” said Bradley Lord, Mercedes Communications Director, in the team’s official post-race debrief.
“Our main goal now is to put ourselves in a position to perform better and to demonstrate the car’s true potential. We also have updates coming that we hope will improve performance in both Belgium and Hungary,” he added, confirming that Mercedes will bring aerodynamic and mechanical upgrades ahead of the summer break. However, the challenge at Spa will be even greater since it is a sprint weekend, giving the team only one free practice session to validate and fine-tune the updates.
One driver who particularly suffered from the car’s instability through fast corners was young talent Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Italian driver faced more difficulties than George Russell in both Austria and, more notably, at Silverstone. The problems affected not only his lap times but also influenced his aerodynamic setup decisions. While Russell could afford a more aggressive configuration, Antonelli had to opt for a more conservative approach.
“There are a number of things we need to understand better after Silverstone,” Lord continued. “In particular, we need to look closely at the balance limitations Kimi is facing, and whether our drivers are truly able to push the car through high-speed corners the way they need to. We also need to revisit how we’re setting up the car overall.”
“We’ll be analyzing the data carefully and deciding which version of the car specification we want to use for Spa,” he concluded.
As Mercedes prepares for the back-to-back rounds in Belgium and Hungary, the focus is firmly on recovery and adaptation. With both races offering different track characteristics — Spa demanding straight-line speed and aerodynamic efficiency, and Budapest favoring downforce and tire management — the upcoming updates will be a crucial test of whether Mercedes can return to the front of the grid or remain locked in the midfield fight.
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