Mercedes To Bring New Upgrades To W14 For Belgian GP

The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend was one filled with mixed emotions for the Mercedes team. Practice performances were poor, qualifying started off poorly with George Russell getting eliminated in Q1 with Lewis just making it through before finally securing a surprise pole – his 104th – at the end of qualifying, and when Sunday came, it was yet another weak performance for Mercedes. The team managed to bank fourth and fifth at the race, but a lot more was expected from the team after big talks of new upgrades before Silverstone and Spa.

Coming into this new race week for the Belgian Grand Prix, Toto Wolff has yet again mentioned that Mercedes will be bringing new upgrades to the W14 for Spa.

Following a weekend filled with highs and lows, here’s what team principal Toto Wolff had to say about the issues they faced:

We encountered cooling limitations across both cars. We likely had the second-fastes car, but we must execute better if we are to deliver our full potential.

Wolff also talked about how the car had strong pace on both Saturday and Sunday. However, many do not agree with his take, as there was nothing to show for it other than the shock-pole position from Lewis Hamilton. It must be added that Lewis Hamilton has put cars way below performance at the very top during qualifying in previous years, so it might have been down to the driver, not the car when it comes to the W14 being on pole.

As for the upcoming upgrades, here’s what the Austrian had to say:

We will be aiming to turn those learnings into action for this weekend. We will bring updates this weekend as part of our ongoing development programme. We hope this will be another small step forward in improving the W14. Wherever the true pace of our car is here, we want to maximise the outcome in this final race before the summer shutdown.

Mercedes will be evaluating their new upgrades at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend which will also feature the 3rd Sprint Race of the season. Practice 1 and Qualifying will both be held on Friday, with Qualifying determining the grid for Sunday’s race. On Saturday, the Sprint and Sprint Shootout will take place, before finally heading to Sunday for race day. This will be the final F1 race before the summer break. F1 will return on 25th August for the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.