Mercedes approaches the Belgian GP weekend with the intention of keeping their podium streak alive. They secured a fifth consecutive podium with Lewis Hamilton’s third place in Hungary. Another prestigious placement would be the best way to close this phase of the season before the summer break, with a W15 that has changed pace since the Monaco GP at the end of May, solving the problems that had slowed it down at the beginning of the championship.
WOLFF: “WE ARE CONTINUING TO IMPROVE THE CAR”
Unlike what Ferrari did first and Red Bull later, Mercedes continues with its philosophy of bringing small updates to each Grand Prix. This should also be the case at Spa-Francorchamps, where the challenge will continue with a now very compact leading group.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff took stock of the situation:
“We head into the final race before the summer break with a run of five consecutive podiums. We will therefore look to continue this momentum and finish the first half of the season strongly, although the group at the front is compact and we will have to give our all to achieve that.
“Although we are lacking a little pace compared to some of our rivals, we are continuing to improve the performance of the car. We are on a positive trajectory, and that is encouraging. It is still not enough to fight for the win every weekend, but it has allowed us to be in contention for the top three more regularly .”
A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHALLENGE IN SPA COMPARED TO BUDAPEST
At the Hungaroring, the Mercedes W15 was less brilliant than in the triumphant weekend at Silverstone, especially in qualifying where it did not go beyond the fifth fastest time set by Lewis Hamilton: “Last weekend in Hungary was not easy,” Wolff admitted.
“We qualified out of position and were left with a lot of work to do. On Sunday, however, we managed to race hard and score important points, including Lewis, who scored his 200th podium in F1, which is an exceptional result .”
Speaking of podiums, the seven-time world champion will try to improve on his record of 10 podiums in the Belgian GP at Spa. Wolff highlighted how the race in the Ardennes presents different characteristics to the Hungarian GP:
“It was positive to see the steps forward we made in those warmer conditions, although there is still a lot of work to do. Spa is a very different challenge to Budapest. With cooler temperatures and a much faster layout, it will be interesting to see how the W15 performs compared to our rivals .”
