Shovlin Foresees W15 Weaknesses in Hungary

Mercedes F1 faces doubts about its chances in Hungary, with potential weaknesses likely to surface.

While Mercedes F1 is riding high on consecutive victories in Austria and Great Britain, the question now is whether the German team can secure a hat-trick in Hungary this weekend. However, according to Andrew Shovlin, the trackside engineering director, the Hungaroring and the high temperatures may not necessarily suit the W15.

“It will probably be a bit tough for us. Silverstone was perfectly suited to the car. It’s a circuit that demands less from the front end, and the conditions were cooler. The question mark over performance concerns the circuits that are demanding for the rear of the car in hot conditions. It’s going to be very hot on Sunday. So that’s what we’re working on. But I don’t consider us to be among the favourites.”

“It’s a good circuit for testing that. And when you’re trying to focus on a performance area, if it’s rear overheating, the best place to learn and understand your issues is a circuit that exacerbates this problem, even though we would prefer them all to be like Silverstone. But that’s not the case, and it’s a good place to work on this issue.”

The Brackley squad’s turnaround has been spectacular in recent weeks, thanks to a successful development of the car so far. Have Shovlin and his team been surprised by this?

“I wouldn’t say it has surprised us. We set ourselves very ambitious performance targets to ensure we were competitive enough to qualify on pole and win races by the end of the year. We then put in place ambitious plans to achieve these targets in stages, with various updates. What’s great is to see how the entire organization has responded to this challenge to try and get us back to the front, and what we have done has paid off. It’s gratifying when you’re in a situation where all the update kits, all the mechanical changes we’ve made to the car have done what we hoped for, and it’s reassuring to see that we are witnessing a slow and steady return to the front.”

“We continue to develop our F1. You don’t know what you might be able to bring by the end of the year because you haven’t done that work yet, but we will do more of what we’ve done in the next few races, namely bringing small evolutions rather than big packages, but the medium-term future is still very exciting. We are working on many areas and we hope they will materialize and allow us to achieve the lap times we are aiming for.”

“Besides aerodynamics, we have also worked on the overall mechanics. We try to focus on all areas that generate performance, because the wind tunnel needs to deliver results, but there are limits to what can be made to work. Some of the steps that make a difference are those where you can bring a set that is not limited to the aerodynamic development everyone is trying to do. So, we have made good progress in this area, and it shows that the entire team is working well. All the different functions of performance are trying to work together to ensure we can bring updates that meet our needs.”

Given the very narrow margins currently in F1, and considering that teams will very quickly switch to focusing on 2026 at the start of next year, can we expect to see Mercedes F1 and other teams develop their current car until very late this season?

“We will review the situation and see where we are by the break, but we have update plans for the second part of the season. As for the allocation of resources, we will see how the championship unfolds and what we can achieve. But it’s certain that everyone will be making updates until we get to the last races, I think.”