Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin: “Today was a fine reward”

Head of Trackside Engineering, Andrew Shovlin was more than happy with the performance of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in the sprint race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, which saw Russell execute a thrilling overtake on Oracle Red Bull Racing‘s Max Verstappen, and Hamilton make an excellent recovery from eighth to the third position.

The Mercedes AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team have been, so far, enduring a tougher season than they originally thought with the W13 refusing to cooperate with the drivers, until now. After bringing a final update package to Austin the team’s performance has undoubtedly improved, and the results in Saturday’s sprint race Shovlin stated was a ‘fine reward’ for the hard work and efforts made by the team.

“A fantastic drive from George to win the Sprint and a great recovery from Lewis to join him on the front row tomorrow. After such a lot of hard work over the season by the drivers and the entire team in Brackley and Brixworth, today was a fine reward for those efforts.”

Today acts as a perfect reminder of what the Mercedes team is capable of, however, Shovlin states they “were no doubt flattered by being on the right tyre against Max” after the Red Bull driver set out on the track sporting the medium compound tyre which proved to be the less effective tyre against the soft. However, the pace against the two Scuderia Ferrari drivers and Sergio Perez proved to be competitive.

“We were no doubt flattered by being on the right tyre against Max but we can also look at the fact there were two Ferraris and Sergio on the soft and we clearly had pace on them.”

Amongst the elation in the Mercedes garage, Shovlin states the team will remain strong on Sunday’s race despite them “not expecting an easy fight” to the chequered flag but remains hopeful that by starting on the front row the team will have the best opportunity they’ve had all season to add points to the tally.

“We’re certainly not expecting an easy fight tomorrow; Max has a slight tyre advantage with a second new set of Soft but having both cars on the front row gives us the best possible opportunity to control the race from the front. We’re all excited for the race and hopefully, the conditions won’t be too different to what we just had!”