Lewis Hamilton made it back-to-back podiums for the first time in 2023 with third at the Canadian GP; Mercedes are 13 points ahead of Aston Martin in the constructors' championship; F1 returns with the Austrian GP live on Sky Sports F1 from June 30 to July 2
Thursday 22 June 2023 12:58, UK
Mercedes will bring a large upgrade to the British Grand Prix, team principal Toto Wolff has confirmed.
Lewis Hamilton followed up his second place at the Spanish Grand Prix with third in Montreal on Sunday, after a race-long battle against Fernando Alonso.
Traction out of the low-speed corners was the main area in which Hamilton lost time to Alonso and Max Verstappen - an area he has encouraged the team to work on.
The seven-time world champion is 15 points behind Alonso, who is third in the drivers' championship going into next week's Austrian Grand Prix, with Silverstone following a week later.
"We're bringing a larger one to Silverstone, then we should have another one before shutdown. It's just that the learnings have accelerated a lot since we changed some of them conception architecture, and there should be decent steps coming in the next four races," explained Wolff.
"For us we didn't expect to perform here in Canada because how the car DNA is at the moment is more for the high-speed corners, so it's encouraging not be not so far away, but one must not forget that Max is cruising in the front.
"Maybe cruising is the wrong word. Max is still having an easier time in the front, not cruising, but still I think there is margin, so there's quite a gap to catch up."
Asked if Mercedes were close to competing for wins, Wolff answered: "No, I think that the margin is still too big to really be thinking that Max is under pressure. I don't know how much it was this race, maybe two tenths a lap or so, but still far off."
Hamilton was overtaken by Alonso shortly after the mid-race safety car restart in Canada as the Aston Martin driver got better traction out of the Turn 10 hairpin, which led to the longest straight on the track.
There were a few moments when Hamilton appeared to be mounting an attack of his own to get Alonso back, but he was not able to get within DRS range of his former team-mate.
Wolff says Mercedes can improve their traction, which will be less of a problem in Austria and at Silverstone.
"That was the problem of the car all along since we started last year. We have a strong front but we still trailing and still not good enough and we've seen that today, particularly out of the low-speed corners with traction and stability," said the Mercedes team boss.
"I think we can fix it, but it is aero, it is the mechanical concept - that's all intertwined, there's not one thing."
He added: "I think we are understanding better the simulations, the time correlates with what we are seeing on track, and that's been our problem over the last one-and-a-half years.
"We are seeing good performance gains that are coming in in the tunnel, we are seeing better understanding of what the car needs in order to go fast, what the setups need to look like. So generally the steps are getting bigger now, I think we are making good inroads."
Hamilton's wait for a victory goes on - his last win came in December 2021 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
And the Briton has suggested that Mercedes begin to divert their resources towards next year, given the work he believes Red Bull are already putting in on their 2024 model.
"We're definitely getting closer. It's going to be a battle of development, I guess, over the rest of the season. I reckon Max's team are already working on next year's car, so we need to take our eye a little bit off the ball and focus on next year also but yeah, happy to be up there.
"In truth, it doesn't feel a huge difference to the beginning of the year. There are some elements of the car which do feel different and obviously with the upgrade but it's just simply just have a little bit more downforce on the car.
"But the characteristics of the car are very, very similar to what we had earlier on in the year and so we need to… for the future, for the next year's car, you need to take a lot of these different things off and change them for sure.
"It's definitely not the car that… characteristic-wise the car that's going to be able to beat the Red Bull just yet, so we've got to work on that."
Red Bull seek to continue their winning run in 2023 as they return to their home track for the Austrian GP - watch live on Sky Sports F1 from June 30-July 2. Get Sky Sports
