Mercedes in Red Bull and McLaren theory as fresh upgrades brought

Mercedes believes it has shrunk the deficit to Red Bull and McLaren in one crucial area the W15 has been lacking. 

Over the past five races, Mercedes has been competitive with two pole positions and two race wins as well as podiums at each race. 

The poles and win at the British GP for Lewis Hamilton came in cooler or wet conditions, with the fact that the team was third fastest in the hotter Spanish, Austrian and Hungarian races adding credence to the idea that the car struggled in the hotter temperatures. 

Trackside engineering chief Andrew Shovlin believes that between the Austrian and Hungarian races, the team has managed to eat into the gap enjoyed by McLaren and Red Bull in such races.

"For us, it is about progress. If you look at where we were in Austria, in terms of race pace, we were fortunate that Max [Verstappen] and Lando [Norris] came together, but we were quite a long way back from that battle," he told media including RacingNews365.

"In Budapest, that gap shrunk, so you can see we are making progress, but going into that weekend, we knew the hot conditions, the twisty nature of the circuit was going to be difficult for the rear tyres. 

"That's an area where the benchmarks really are McLaren and Red Bull, but the main thing for us was being better in Budapest than Austria and who knows what we are going to get here, where it could be a wet qualifying. 

"Sunday is starting to look dry, but the track won't be as good as it was at Silverstone."

Latest Mercedes upgrades

Mercedes has also brought another upgrade package to its car for the Belgian weekend, focusing on the floor and rear of the car. 

Detailing the steady stream of improvements being made, Shovlin explained that the team is relieved to be able to bring a new package as the car the team always believed was good starts to improve.

"One of the main things is the floor, which is just another step of development that we've been able to bring," he said.

"It is nice to get some new parts on the car, because the reality of the cost cap is that you are constantly patching them up, trying to repair them, so hopefully this will be a step forward.

"We also have subtle changes to the front and rear-wing to drop the level of drag on the car to suit the long straights, but the big development is the floor. 

"It is not so much a breakthrough moment, as we've always thought this car on its day seemed to be quick. 

"But being able to do that across a whole weekend was a bit of a challenge for us in the early part of the year. 

"It is more usable now and there are lots of things we've done to try and get on top of those issues.

"We were surprised that we weren't quicker at the start of the season, we thought we'd made a good car, and underneath, it was a good car, it just had some problems that we had to get on top of - and we're now seeing the result of that hard work."