Mercedes make 'new clothes' pledge to Hamilton ahead of Ferrari switch

Mercedes is hoping a "substantial" new upgrade will allow it to celebrate Lewis Hamilton in "greater style" after a poor landmark grand prix in Singapore.

Hamilton clocked up his 350th grand prix start at Marina Bay, eclipsing Kimi Raikkonen's tally, with only Fernando Alonso ahead on the all-time start list.

The Mercedes driver had an up-and-down weekend, qualifying third before a poor strategy dropped him to sixth, something Mercedes later called a "clear mistake".

After winning three of the four races before the summer break, with Hamilton scooping victories in Great Britain and Belgium, the team has since dropped off in competitiveness, although a troublesome floor update has now been removed from the W15. 

Looking ahead to Hamilton's final six races with the team before moving to Ferrari, technical director James Allison has promised a major change on the car for Austin.

Explaining how Mercedes is currently filling the extended gap ahead of the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Allison said: "We'll be trying to figure out how to mitigate what ailed us [in Singapore], how to figure out how to make the tyres run better on these sorts of overheating circuits.

"We'll be also doing quite a lot of work to bring our last upgrade of the season together."

Confirming "a fairly substantial set of new clothes" for the car in Austin, Allison added: "We hope that will give us a decent weekend there. 

"So we've got to deliver all that and get ourselves ready for these last few races of the year.

"We are coming towards the end of our journey with [Lewis] and almost every weekend is a milestone never to be repeated.

"It's just a shame that [his 350th race] happened on a weekend where the car was not brighter and my hope is that we won't have to go too far beyond the 350th. Maybe we can celebrate the 351st in greater style in Austin."