Following Lewis Hamilton’s Sneaky Lead, Mercedes Admits to Dodgy Tactics to Copy Rivals in “Unusual” Confession

After only a few races into the season, every team knew Red Bull was the team to beat. As the season has progressed—with Red Bull still the target—teams have kept a close eye on the Milton-Keynes outfit but an even closer eye on their direct competitors. With Red Bull too far ahead of everyone, four teams are fighting each other right behind the leaders. And McLaren was the newest one to join the fray after the Austrian GP, where it introduced the first round of its upgrades to the MCL60. Seeing how it made a significant step in a matter of weeks, its efforts have caught the interest of Lewis Hamilton & Co. at Mercedes.

After the introduction of the ground-effect regulations that Red Bull nailed, every team had been dying to see what its floor looked like. At the 2023 Monaco GP, teams got the opportunity, and Lewis Hamilton made the most of it. After Sergio Perez’s crash in Q3, his RB19 had to be crane-lifted off the track. In doing so, everyone got an extended peek into its floor, with photographers taking hundreds of pictures. After the weekend, Hamilton revealed he saved the pictures of the RB19’s floor on his phone and would “look at them very closely, zooming in.”

Although teams are still trying to replicate Red Bull’s genius, Mercedes has started paying attention elsewhere. More specifically, at McLaren. Mercedes Technical Director James Allison revealed they’re doing what Hamilton did in Monaco. As quoted by formulapassion.it, he said, “We take a lot of photos [of other cars] and try to understand what changes from race to race.” He explained that McLaren’s progress has become Mercedes’ inspiration and that the Woking outfit gaining so much performance is unusual. He explained, “The interesting and unusual aspect of the McLaren update is that the effect on lap times has been quite strong. It is unusual to have such an improvement in competitiveness in the middle of the season.”

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He added how Mercedes could benefit from the pictures, saying, “This is also interesting for us because we have their pictures before and after the update. It is very useful for us to know what this improvement is due to and to understand if it could be useful for developing our car.” McLaren did a great job in Silverstone. Especially in the second sector with the fast corners. While Hungary would be the real test for its upgrades, Mercedes hopes its British GP upgrade would pay dividends at the Hungaroring.

Lewis Hamilton & Co. could benefit from their Silverstone upgrade at the Hungarian GP

Before the Austrian GP, Toto Wolff revealed that Mercedes would bring a new front wing to the British GP. The wing was designed to help the W14 improve its slow cornering. But the Brackley team couldn’t properly gauge the effectiveness of the new upgrade due to the lack of slow corners in Silverstone. James Allison believes they’ll understand it better at the Hungarian GP.

Mercedes was happy with the car’s competitiveness in the slow corners at Silverstone. However, they hope for an even better performance at the Hungaroring, which is riddled with slow corners. Allison said, “I think, in Hungary, we will be able to know for sure whether this wing has been an improvement. Initial feedback is promising. It seems to do what we expected. Hopefully it will give us even more on tracks with a higher number of slow corners.”

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Do you think Mercedes would be higher up the order in the Hungarian GP?