Mercedes warning over Austin challenge

Mercedes is anticipating a "difficult" challenge ahead of the US Grand Prix, as they look to increase the gap to Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship.

The team is locked in a tight battle for second with the Scuderia, with just 28 points separating them following a non-score for both teams in Qatar.

Historically Austin has been a favourable track for Mercedes, having won four races in a row between 2014 and 2017.

The last time they took victory was with Valtteri Bottas in 2019, with Max Verstappen winning the last two times it was held.

There were a lot of learnings that Mercedes could take away from their performance at Qatar, which has similar characteristics as Austin with the mix of high speed corners and hot temperatures.

"We had a good indication that it was going to work well [at Qatar]. This circuit suited our car much more than Suzuka, the previous race," said Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin.

"But the big question is: How are we going to go in Austin? Well, that's a very different track. It's an aggressive tarmac, very easy to overheat the tyres and probably our worry there is going to be the high-speed performance.

"That's where Red Bull and McLaren look particularly strong. It does have plenty of low-speed corners and in Qatar, we were very good in the low-speed.

"It’s difficult to know exactly where we are going to stand out, but our goal is to go there and hopefully be fighting for a podium.

"We had a really good chance of getting both cars on the podium in Qatar but hopefully we will be fighting for the podium in Austin."