Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin: “Every step takes us closer to where we want to be”

Like Team Principal Toto Wolff, Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin believes that the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team is making significant progress after the team introduced a final upgrade package of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season at the Circuit of Americas.

After coming within touching distance of a win at Austin, Shovlin is confident more than ever that the team are approaching where they want to be. Despite the team being aware of the extra work they have ahead of them, Shovlin is glad that their hard work is contributing to the team’s performance.

Lewis Hamilton and team-mate George Russell were both showing decent pace, with Hamilton leading the race from lap forty-one to forty-nine, but the car seemed to be a handful for both drivers thanks to the strong winds in Austin and an unfortunate racing incident off of turn one that compromised Russell’s balance and downforce.

Shovlin felt that the team now understand the car a bit better, and the struggles encountered by both drivers, he intends to take away as positives that will allow the team to better understand what they need to work on in order to come back stronger for the following 2023 season.

After the sad news of Dietrich Mateschitz’s passing, Shovlin congratulated the Oracle Red Bull Racing team on their Constructor’s Championship win.

“Congratulations to Red Bull and Honda on the Constructor’s Championship, we know very well how much work it takes to win – they started this year well and improved from there.

“There were moments in today’s race where we thought the win was going to be on and it does feel like we’ve made some good progress with the latest update, but we’ve clearly got a bit of work to do. The pace was reasonable, but the car hasn’t been easy for the drivers to work with and that’s an area that we understand a bit better now compared to a few races ago but something we need to improve for next year.”

After Russell’s collision with Carlos Sainz Jr. the stewards served Russell a five-second penalty, which according to the Mercedes team was an unwarranted penalty due to their judgement calling the collision a racing incident between the two drivers.

“George’s race was hurt by the turn one clash with Carlos; that damaged the wing which cost him some pace along with a five-second penalty. We felt that the line Carlos took contributed to that contact so in our view it was a racing incident but clearly the stewards had a different view.”

​Despite Russell’s unfortunate start, Hamilton’s strong race and finish seemed to overshadow his team-mates blunder as Shovlin noted how positive it was for the team to be reminded what it was like to lead a race and fight for a win felt like. After the encouraging race results from the United States Grand Prix, Shovlin confirms the team will be preparing over the next few days for Mexico.

“Lewis had a very strong race, and it was good to remind ourselves what it feels like to fight at the front; we’re disappointed that we couldn’t convert this into a win, but it’s only going to add to our resolve to dig deep and find more lap time. A lot of hard work has gone into bringing this kit to the car and the pace is getting better with every update so we can take some satisfaction from the fact that every step takes us closer to where we want to be.

“We’d had tough races in Singapore and Suzuka, so it’s been good to see stronger performance here and we are still hoping to get that first win before the season is out, so we’ll be working very hard over the next few days to prepare for Mexico.”

Credit: LAT Images