Mercedes want to be fighting for “some victories” before end of F1 2023

The German manufacturer first introduced their heavily-revised W14 at the Monaco Grand Prix and went on to have their best result of the season at the following race in Spain with a double podium finish. 

Lewis Hamilton followed up his second place finish in Barcelona with third at the Canadian Grand Prix behind Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, while George Russell crashed out of fourth place. 

“It is really nice to be now racing at least for podiums, being able to show what we are capable of doing,” Mercedes’ chief technical officer Mike Elliott said in the team’s post-race debrief video. 

"Hopefully we can turn that into more upgrades, more performance over the races to come and hopefully start fighting for some victories by the end of the season.”

Elliott confirmed that Mercedes’ major upgrade package has brought the improvements the team hoped for, with a second “larger” update planned for next month’s British Grand Prix. 

“We are really pleased to say that it has done what we expected,” Elliott said. “It’s helped the car move forward and we are generally more competitive. 

“We said before the weekend that Canada will be a more difficult circuit for us; it's mainly low speed corners and straights, something that hasn’t been brilliant for us in the past. 

“So, to come out of this weekend to qualify with the cars fourth and fifth, promoted to third and fourth and then to race in a strong way, beaten by Alonso but for Lewis to race to third and in George's case to show strong performance up until his crash I think it is a good result for us and hopefully something we can take into the next few races.”

And Elliott expects the W14 to perform better at the next two races at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and Silverstone. 

“I think where we have seen the car struggling is more in the low-speed corners,” he explained. 

“So if we start looking at circuits that have got more medium and high-speed content; we think we will do better there. 

“So, Silverstone will be a good example of that. Austria shouldn’t be too bad for us either. So let's hope we go well on both of those.”