Mercedes to unleash fresh upgrades as W15 theory proved correct

George Russell is hopeful that a fresh Mercedes upgrade at the Belgian Grand Prix will allow the team to continue to fight McLaren and Red Bull. 

A previous Mercedes upgrade in Canada centered around a new front-wing, with the W15 rapidly improving since, with pole positions in Canada and Britain for Russell, a win in Austria with Lewis Hamilton also ending his 945 day win drought, with British GP victory.

Both of those victories have come in wet/cool conditions with the W15 proving a step behind the McLaren MCL38 and Red Bull RB20 in the hotter conditions, such as at the Hungaroring last time out. 

Russell believes the team has confirmed the theory of the car working better in the cold, with such temperatures and rain expected at Spa, as a new upgrade is set to be delivered.

"Budapest confirmed what we knew ahead of the weekend that we seem to be performing much better in the cooler conditions compared to the hotter races," Russell told media including RacingNews365. 

"Going into Spa, I think there is rain on the forecast and we have some upgrades which is really exciting to see if it can take us to the next step after what we brought to Canada a few races ago. 

"We want to take the fight to the McLarens and to Red Bull. That is what Formula 1 is about and we want to be in the fight."

Mercedes on the right track

Mercedes went winless for the first time since 2011 in the '23 season, as it continued to change car concepts in a bid to get back to winning ways. 

Now the team is starting to add performance to the car, Russell is extremely optimistic for the future and the "exciting journey" as he prepares to succeed Ferrari-bound Hamilton as team leader.

"It felt at some point in these last two-and-a-half years questioning, are we ever going to be rewarded for the hard work, dedication and sacrifice that the whole team are putting in to try and turn this around and bring Mercedes back to the top?," Russell said.

"So already the fact that we have two wins to our name this year is a huge achievement for the team especially where we started in Bahrain.

"The other teams are bringing upgrades to the car and are maybe not quite working as first expected and we feel that we're on a really exciting journey and going into the final race before the summer break.

"We want to try and finish on a high, but we know that we're on the right track. 

"There's a lot of excitement going into the second half of the season and into next season as well. It is an exciting time for us."