Toto Wolff has revealed that Mercedes is "curious" to discover if it can continue its recent progress this weekend in the United States Grand Prix, following an "unexpected" win in Singapore.
Ahead of the Singapore GP, Mercedes was not tipped as a potential victory contender, due to hot and humid conditions traditionally being a weakness for the Silver Arrows.
That looked to be the case after a difficult Friday for George Russell, which saw the Briton crash and miss valuable running in second practice.
However, the W16 came alive from qualifying onwards, with Russell having secured pole position before converting it into a comfortable second win of the season.
It was a result which initially left the Brackley-based outfit surprised, although it has since been revealed by Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin that adjustments to the car were made after practice.
Mercedes has been working on looking after its rear tyres in hot conditions, with its adjustments having made a positive impact across Azerbaijan and Singapore.
The hope for Wolff, Mercedes' team principal, is that it can continue to perform at the Circuit of the Americas and the races which follow, although recognises the challenge ahead in regard to the variety of tracks.
"We come off the back of a strong result in Singapore, taking victory with George and P5 for Kimi," said Wolff. "Not only was that unexpected, our level of performance across Saturday and Sunday showed it was no fluke.
"That has been the story of the season somewhat, where it isn't clear which team will be leading the way from weekend-to-weekend.
"We were also good in Azerbaijan so we are curious to see if we can maintain the step we have made with the W16 into this next run of races across the Americas.
"They are very different layouts and challenges to those two street circuits, so we are heading a little into the unknown, but that unpredictability is what makes our sport so enjoyable."
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