In the round-up: Mercedes say they still need more relevant running to understand their most recent upgrade package.
In brief
Mercedes hoping for “clean laps” in Brazil
Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin said they didn’t gain as much knowledge of their latest upgrade as they expected to in Mexico as their drivers spent a significant part of the race in traffic, most of which as they fought each other.
“We’ve definitely got some useful data and what we’ve seen from the update to date is that it is delivering performance where we expect, certainly in terms of the loads that we’re measuring and also the pressures that we’re measuring on the aerodynamic surfaces,” he said in a video released by the team. “So that all seems fine.
“What we were hoping for that we didn’t get to the full extent was a sort of clean run with both cars where they’re in clear air where we can see how they performed through the race.”
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell swapped places three times during the race. “Lewis was quick off the line,” said Shovlin. “He got in front of George but he was struggling with his balance in stint one.
“We corrected that for stint two but then he had George ahead of him, who’d had his front wing issue, that flap that had failed. So then the two cars spent an awful lot of the race in traffic, which does affect your analysis.
“But what we’ve collected, yes, it’s useful, yes we can say it is performing more or less as expected, but we’re going to continue learning into Brazil and hopefully get some clean laps, some good running with that update kit.”
Sauber hire Ferrari strategist
Sauber have hired former Ferrari strategist Inaki Rueda as their new sporting director. In other changes at the team, which will become Audi in 2026, Giampaolo Dall’Ara has been named head of race engineering and long-time team member Beat Zehnder will become director of signature programs and operations next year.
RB signs F4 winner for F1 Academy
Rafaela Ferreira, who has won two of the 15 races in the Brazilian Formula 4 championship this year, will join RB’s F1 Academy team next year. She lies fourth in the standings with nine races remaining, including three supporting the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos this weekend.
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