Mercedes shares their F1 plan to take on Ferrari’s impressive upgrades
Mercedes’ trackside engineering boss Andrew Shovlin has shared how the team plans to keep up with Ferrari’s comeback this season.
Mercedes’ young star Kimi Antonelli is leading the Formula 1 drivers’ championship after winning five races in a row. But recently, he’s had a couple of races where he didn’t score points. At the same time, Ferrari has been improving fast, thanks to some big upgrades. This helped Lewis Hamilton win his first race for Ferrari in Barcelona, and Charles Leclerc took victory at the British GP a couple of rounds later.
Because of this, Antonelli’s big lead in the standings has gotten smaller. His Mercedes teammate George Russell is still second, but Hamilton is closing in, now just 32 points behind. Some think Ferrari should focus on helping Hamilton catch the Mercedes drivers to boost their chances.
While Ferrari and Red Bull have made big upgrades that have cut into Mercedes’ speed advantage, Mercedes is not planning to let their drivers get passed easily. Shovlin explained that instead of massive upgrade kits, Mercedes is bringing steady improvements each week to stay ahead.
He told the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show, “We keep adding performance little by little to stay ahead. We’ve built a car that works well on many different tracks. We put a lot of effort into preparing for each circuit so we can do well. Monaco and Austria have been tough for us in past years, but we managed to turn things around recently. Spa is a tricky track for energy management, so we need to be ready to hit the ground running there.”
After a couple of quiet races around their good result in Austria, Antonelli and Russell have a chance to pull away from Hamilton and Leclerc again when the F1 season moves to Belgium next weekend.
Antonelli started strong, finishing second at Australia and winning five races between China and Monaco. Russell has also done well, hitting the top two in the last three races. However, Antonelli’s had some challenges over the summer after his amazing start to 2026.
Last year, Antonelli set the fastest lap at Spa, but McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won the race, with teammate Lando Norris second and Leclerc third. This shows how tough the competition is, and the excitement for the upcoming races continues!