After many months of constant suffering, Mercedes had a turning point at the Silverstone weekend, with Lewis Hamilton racing close to the frontrunners in some phases of the race.
Everything seemed to indicate that after the British Grand Prix, the German team was going to come out of the tunnel and, instead, in the Austrian Grand Prix, the seven-time world champion crossed the checkered flag more than forty seconds behind the winner Charles Leclerc.
A margin that, in large part, was due to the delayed starting position of Hamilton himself (after his accident in qualifying when he seemed to be close to the favorites), but, without taking this into account, the race pace of the Briton did not lived up to what was seen at Silverstone.
In this context, it is difficult to say what Mercedes can aspire to in Paul Ricard. A few weeks ago in Monaco, the Brackley team said that the race in France was the most anticipated for them, both because of the asphalt (very smooth) and because of the layout of the track, with fast corners and few curbs.
Lewis Hamilton accident in Austrian qualifying with the Mercedes W13 in Q3
However, it would not be the first time so far this season that Mercedes has created a series of expectations that later have not agreed with what happened during the weekend.
But ahead of this French Grand Prix, there are aspects that help us think that we could see the best Mercedes (so far) of the season, in line with the performance shown at the Silverstone circuit and perhaps even a little better.
In addition to the aspects already mentioned, it should be noted that the Germans will mount updates on Paul Ricard, which the team has already downplayed. As they point out internally, the changes will be so small that they will be difficult to detect, but there are also rumors in the paddock that “not visible” does not mean “unimportant”.
The development of the W13 continues at full capacity, with the only limitation being the budget cap, as the team still sees great potential out of this single-seater, as a result of what was seen in the wind tunnel and in the simulations carried out at Brackley .
In addition, there will be more technical news that will arrive in Budapest, the last race before the summer break, thus completing the program planned until that important moment of the season.
In this way, Mercedes hopes that the answers obtained during the next two weekends will be key for the second half of the course, which will begin at the end of August in Spa.
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