Mercedes focusing on slow speed corner weakness in 2025 car

Shovlin was talking in Mercedes' post Sao Paulo Grand Prix debrief where Lewis Hamilton finished tenth while George Russell was fourth despite a major upgrade for the team in the US Grand Prix in Austin.

Shovlin said: "Where we tend to be weak, it is in the slow-speed corners, particularly the ones where you have got one corner following into another. There is a lot of turning of the car, and that is a weakness that we need to work on.

"We did not expect this update kit to improve that. All we expected was this to just lift the base performance of the car. In terms of what we have seen, we are confident it is doing what was expected.

"However, we are also confident there are some fundamentals that we have got to get to grips with on this car in order to fix them on the W16, and we are very busy with that right now, and hopefully making the right changes over the winter so that we are not struggling with these weaknesses next year," he explained.

Mercedes have dropped back since the summer break despite Hamilton winning in Spa, the final race before the mandatory shutdown, and are now far from the top three teams in the 2024 F1 constructors' championship.

Shovlin went on: "The main thing in terms of learning is that the corners that we are weak in are still the same ones. It is the interconnected, slow corners. That is normally where we trip up.

"The big focus in these remaining races for us is learning what we can. We are in a position in the championship where we cannot challenge in front of us. It is very unlikely we are going to see any challenge from behind.

"Our focus has very much shifted to learning what we need to this year to apply to next year in order to get on top of those issues."

As for the final three races, a triple header that starts with the Las Vegas Grand Prix, followed by the Qatar Grand Prix, with the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes will be testing and gathering data with the current car in order to make amends with its 2025 successor.

Shovlin said: "We are going to be looking at all the remaining tracks to assess performance and just confirm what we understand about this car and whether the changes we are hoping to make for next year are going to improve those areas.

"Vegas has a lot of straight line and low-speed corners. Qatar is a faster track. And then, finishing in Abu Dhabi, which is a mix of everything, it will give us a good read on how we are performing and who is the benchmark.

"Sometimes it is Red Bull, sometimes McLaren, sometimes Ferrari, but it will allow us to establish the gap that we need to close down over those winter months," the Mercedes engineer concluded.