Mercedes F1 not sitting nonetheless after current sizzling streak

The most popular Components 1 workforce for the time being?

Mercedes.

After a gradual begin to the 2024 season, the Silver Arrows have definitely picked up the tempo. A sequence of upgrades the workforce began to roll out on the Miami Grand Prix have began paying off, resulting in back-to-back victories for the workforce. George Russell took house the Austrian Grand Prix for the workforce’s first victory of the 2024 season, and whereas that win got here partially attributable to an incident between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris that knocked each drivers out of rivalry for the victory, Lewis Hamilton’s. win final Sunday on the British Grand Prix got here largely on the tempo of the W15.

The primary signal of a breakthrough got here on the Canadian Grand Prix when Russell captured pole place to start out up entrance in Montreal. Whereas that solely translated to a P3 end — and the workforce’s first Grand Prix podium of the yr — it was an indication of larger issues to come back.

And since that race, no workforce has been hotter than the Silver Arrows. Mercedes has outscored their three rivals atop the F1 Constructors’ standings over the previous 4 race weekends, permitting them to creep again into the combination on the sharp finish of the grid:

As you possibly can see from this graphic courtesy of Components 1 Factors, Mercedes has put themselves again within the dialogue on the prime of the desk:

However they don’t seem to be executed.

Mercedes Crew Principal Toto Wolff confirmed following the British Grand Prix that extra upgrades are coming to the W15 within the weeks forward.

“There’s extra to come back by way of efficiency,” stated Wolff following Hamilton’s win. “We’re bringing updates to Budapest and Spa.”

The Hungaroring supplied one of many workforce’s excessive factors a season in the past, as the same sequence of upgrades to the W14 culminated in Hamilton capturing pole place for the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix. Whereas Mercedes solely noticed a P4/P6 end within the race itself, Hamilton’s pole place confirmed a degree of enchancment within the W14 the workforce was looking for all through 2023.

Now, with the workforce rolling into the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix on extra of a sizzling streak, maybe greater issues are potential subsequent week.

“When you think about that 5 races in the past we weren’t even a contender for the rostrum, which regarded just like the third yr of non-performance, then it clicked,” added Wolff at Silverstone.

“Abruptly every thing that didn’t make sense made sense. And the outcomes of the event instructions are again like within the outdated days. We’re discovering efficiency, we’re placing it on the automobile, and it interprets into lap time.

“That wasn’t the case for the final two years. We couldn’t give the drivers a automobile that enabled them to go for the victories.

“And to make Lewis win the British Grand Prix once more in his final race for Mercedes right here is sort of like a bit of fairytale, we couldn’t have scripted it higher.”

Will that script proceed in Hungary?