Mercedes confirm front wing upgrade for British GP

Mercedes has confirmed that its W14 will feature a new front wing this weekend at Silverstone, an update the team hopes will move it a bit further up the grid.

The Brackley squad's performance has been inconsistent since it rolled out its new-spec car at Monaco at the end of May.

The team scored successive podiums in Barcelona and in Montreal but significantly underperformed relative to its rivals in Austria last weekend.

More revisions were planned for Silverstone and Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has confirmed that this be the case for the team's home race in Northhamptonshire.

"It's a fantastic event that we really look forward to," said Shovlin.

"The team is based very close to the track, we've got two British drivers and the support is always absolutely phenomenal, so we love going there.

• Read also: Mercedes aims to 'recapture momentum' at Silverstone

"We've got updates coming to the cars, we have a new front wing that we are going to be bringing.

"That will hopefully move us a bit further up the grid and also, we are hoping that the track itself is going to suit the car a bit better than that Austria circuit."

While Red Bull remains out of reach of its rivals, Mercedes is sparing no effort to try and detach itself from the bulls' group of angry pursuers.

"We are working very hard, we know that it is going to be very difficult to get anywhere close to Max in the Red Bull but we've got a great fight going on at the moment with Ferrari, with Aston Martin, and it looks like McLaren have joined in that battle," explained Shovlin.

"So as I said, we are going to be working really hard to make sure we can get as much out of this package as we can and hopefully, it'll be a great race for all the fans."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes his team can still take the challenge to Red Bull this season, which is why the Brackley outfit isn't switching its focus to its 2024 car, at least not yet.

"I maintain the belief because, if I were to say I don't maintain the belief, then we may as well turn it off and put everything into next year's car, and be happy to finish in the top 10," said Wolff.

"But you can't. You just have to continue working. We need to take these bad days as good as possible, and try to rebound and come closer.

"We've seen races where we were decent, and I think the gap to Verstappen was 10 seconds in Montreal, which looks much more encouraging that it was [in Austria]."

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