Daily News 19

Tag: Andrew Shovlin

  • Mercedes Targets Pole Drought End with Malaysia F1 Upgrades

    Mercedes Targets Pole Drought End with Malaysia F1 Upgrades

    Key Highlights

    • Mercedes confirms its next major Formula 1 upgrade package will debut at the Malaysian Grand Prix on 2–4 October, targeting a return to pole-contending form.
    • Despite a commanding 145-point championship lead over Ferrari, the Silver Arrows have not claimed pole position since Kimi Antonelli topped qualifying at Spa in July.
    • Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin expects a “decent step” from the Malaysian updates but cautions the competitive gap to McLaren and Ferrari is now just one or two tenths.

    Mercedes Targets Malaysian Upgrade to Arrest Qualifying Slide

    Mercedes has confirmed that its next significant Formula 1 development package will arrive at the Malaysian Grand Prix on 2–4 October, marking the Asian venue’s return to the calendar in place of Bahrain. The German manufacturer enters the event with a substantial 145-point advantage over Ferrari in the 2026 Constructors’ Championship, a lead built despite the team’s last major upgrade being introduced at the Montreal round in May. Since then, Mercedes has relied on minor, circuit-specific updates while rivals Ferrari and McLaren have pursued more aggressive development programmes.

    That strategic conservatism has coincided with a shift in competitive momentum. After winning the opening six grands prix of the season, Mercedes has secured only four victories in the subsequent eight rounds, with McLaren and Ferrari each claiming two wins. More critically for a team historically defined by Saturday dominance, the Silver Arrows have not started from pole position since Kimi Antonelli set the pace at Spa-Francorchamps in July—a drought spanning four consecutive race weekends.

    Shovlin Details Baku Strategy and Upgrade Timeline

    Speaking on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin outlined the team’s immediate approach. With the Azerbaijan Grand Prix preceding Malaysia, Shovlin acknowledged limited new components for the Baku street circuit, emphasising its unique demands.

    “We haven’t got much new coming to Baku, but actually that’s a circuit that’s more about drag than downforce. So the car was good in Monza, hopefully it will work well in Baku. But, you need a car that can have a good straight line speed.”

    “There’s other things, though, you need in Baku, like the sort of street circuit nature, almost that Monaco-esque being able to deal with the low speed, keeping all the wheels on the ground.”

    Looking beyond the Caspian Sea venue, Shovlin confirmed the developmental focus shifts eastward.

    “And then the updates, well, they’re going to come Malaysia onwards and hopefully we’ll make a decent step. I don’t think we’re going to be out front by miles, but hopefully we’ll be back into a position where we can really go into qualifying, knowing that we’re fighting for pole.”

    Championship Lead Masks Growing Qualifying Deficit

    The disconnect between Mercedes’ race-day potency and its qualifying form is stark. Antonelli has converted the W15’s race pace into back-to-back victories at Monza and Madrid, yet the team finds itself on a pole-position drought that contrasts sharply with the opening phase of the campaign. In the three most recent rounds without a Mercedes pole, McLaren’s Lando Norris has topped the timesheets each time—a reversal from the first ten rounds where the Silver Arrows swept every pole position.

    Shovlin articulated the fine margins now defining the championship’s front row.

    “Early in the season, we tended to go thinking, we have a car that if we do a really good job, it should be on pole. We should be fighting for a race win. Whereas now the margin between finishing first and finishing sixth is one or two tenths and it’s difficult to predict because Monza is a unique track.”

    “It needs a car that’s quite slippy with low drag and then new circuit like Madring couldn’t be more different. But we just focus on getting the most out of the car and if we win, awesome.”

    Why This Matters

    The Malaysian Grand Prix represents a pivotal inflection point in the 2026 season. While Mercedes’ championship buffer provides insulation, the convergence of performance among the top three teams—now separated by mere hundredths of a second in qualifying—threatens to erode the operational advantages that come with starting at the front. For team principal Toto Wolff and technical director James Allison, the Malaysian upgrade must deliver not merely incremental lap time but a restoration of the qualifying predictability that underpinned the team’s early-season dominance. With McLaren and Ferrari showing no signs of slowing their development trajectories, the Sepang event will test whether Mercedes’ conservative mid-season strategy was a calculated masterstroke or a window of opportunity ceded to rivals.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    When will Mercedes’ next major upgrade arrive?
    The next significant development package is scheduled for the Malaysian Grand Prix on 2–4 October 2026.
    Why has Mercedes not taken pole since July?
    The competitive gap to McLaren and Ferrari has narrowed to one or two tenths of a second, making qualifying outcomes highly sensitive to circuit characteristics. Lando Norris has claimed pole in three of the last four rounds for McLaren.
    What is Mercedes’ current championship position?
    Mercedes leads the 2026 Constructors’ Championship by 145 points over second-placed Ferrari, despite winning only four of the last eight races.
  • Mercedes puzzled by why it was “rubbish” through high-speed corners at Dutch GP

    Mercedes puzzled by why it was “rubbish” through high-speed corners at Dutch GP

    Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin described the team’s performance through Zandvoort’s high-speed corners as “rubbish” as Mercedes investigates its inconsistent pace during the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.

    Mercedes made a strong start to the Zandvoort weekend, with George Russell taking pole position and winning the sprint race. However, the team fell behind McLaren’s Lando Norris, who secured pole and victory in the Dutch Grand Prix.

    Mercedes still finished second and third in qualifying and the race. Kimi Antonelli finished ahead of team-mate Russell to extend his championship lead to 59 points, but Mercedes was unable to explain why its early pace failed to carry through the rest of the weekend against its main rival.

    “We’ve got a few things on the performance side to try and dig into,” Shovlin said on Mercedes’ Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show. “We’re going to be getting on with that this week and see what we learn.

    “But there were a few corners where we were pretty rubbish, like that combination of [Turns] 7, 8, 9. You could see [it in] the faster-speed [curves]. And it also gives the tyres on the left-hand side of the car a tough time. And we don’t really understand yet fully what’s causing that.

    “We’ve got some ideas, but that’s not a problem that we’ve suffered with so far this year. And there’s plenty of circuits that have got kind of continued corners in one direction.

    “We were a bit off the pace in the fastest of those [turns]. And then our problems kind of grew a bit as we went through. All the other corners look solid.”

    Mercedes struggled to explain differing tyre performance

    Mercedes’ confusion was compounded by the limited changes made to the cars between the sprint race and the grand prix, as well as during the race itself. Shovlin acknowledged that pace can vary depending on tyre compound and tyre life, but both drivers experienced problems at different stages of the race.

    “We didn’t change the car. We obviously had different compounds at different stages. But again, we need to understand a bit,” he said.

    “George’s first stint was a bit lacklustre compared to his later ones. And then with Kimi, first stint was good, and then dropped a bit on the second, dropped a bit more on the third, a bit came back on the third. It wasn’t like we were playing around with electronic settings or up and down on flap angles. And for him, the balance of the car was quite different stint on stint.

    “The two drivers, normally they report similar things with a car at the end of the race. Both of them, their perception of the balance, and probably the reality is George had a more understeery car, Kimi had a more oversteery car. If we look at how they were set up, we don’t yet know quite why we got such a big difference.

    “So, though, really good to have a strong point-scoring weekend when we weren’t at our best in terms of performance. It was actually good fun, sat on the pitwall and having to make decisions in a hurry. I think the whole team enjoyed that and rose to the occasion. And it was definitely a good result, given where we were.

    “But yeah, a bit of head-scratching to do over the next few days.”

    Mercedes records second-highest points haul of the season

    Despite its lack of clarity over the pace loss, Mercedes scored 46 points at Zandvoort, its second-highest team total of the season. Only its 55-point haul at the Chinese Grand Prix was higher, although both events were sprint weekends with more points available.