They were down but never out, and now Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are on a consistent upward trajectory. The progression is sometimes sideways and even backward during the race weekend, but the experiments are finally paying off. Mercedes leaves room for experiments on Friday and gets back to serious business from Saturday onwards.
However, on Saturday, Mercedes made upgrades that gave Russell and the team the first pole of the season. Chief engineer Andrew Shovlin even admitted, “At least we learned what not to do,” after the disastrous Friday session.
The last five race results of Hamilton have also helped and there’s a growing feeling the first win will come after the summer break.“We still have a few things up our sleeve, nothing spectacular, but things that will take us further. We’re no longer going in circles, but are now moving forward continuously," confessed Shovlin.