During the race weekend in Austin, Mercedes introduced an important update to its car, including a new floor. According to Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff, the past two races have proven that an important step forward has been taken with the Mercedes W14, which is also crucial for next season’s car.
I think it provides more downforce, more durability and the car is a little less tricky, says Toto Wolff about the upgrade. Lewis told me that the car is still difficult to drive, but it is faster.
It was important to see that we are heading in the right direction for next year, that seems to be the case.
You can’t forget that when we designed the car, we didn’t have the right airflow, we didn’t have the right sidepods and we didn’t have the Christmas decorations they would have been on the car now.
The longer you have the update on the car and collect data, the better you will be able to adjust the car.
I don’t want to create too high expectations for Brazil because it was a bit of a surprise that we dominated the race there last year.
We go there knowing we have a good car and we are going to put everything in order. Then we can have a strong weekend.
Will it be good enough to beat Max Verstappen and their driver, car and power unit package? That’s difficult.