Mercedes Team Representative, Bradley Lord, noted the team is trying to “maximise the package we’ve got” to fight for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship after the F1 Mexico City GP
Mercedes is looking ahead after the F1 Mexico City GP. The Brackley-based team hopes to extract what they can with its current car’s package to put pressure on Ferrari and Red Bull for P2 in the Constructors’. Bradley Lord, shared the Mercedes’s short and long term goals after the Mexican weekend on their YouTube channel.
Off week
Even though there is an off week on track, the lights are on in Brackley and Brixworth for next year. With new regulations to be enforced in 2026, the factories are looking ahead instead of upgrading their current cars.
“Well, it’s very much a week off in name only. It’s a week on here at both Brackley and in Brixworth as well. Obviously, the main focus in the factories is now very much on 2026 and both sites are absolutely flat out with development, with production for next year’s car and next year’s power unit too.”
Maximising their current package
With the factories focusing on 2026, Mercedes has to use everything out of the set-up seen in Mexico City. With no upgrades, Lord knows that the current package is “good enough to be finishing on the podium“. If Mercedes can get the weekend right, Lord hopes “things fall our way“.
“In terms of this season, we know that we’ve got a race to maximise the package we’ve got. We know as well that that is a package good enough to be finishing on the podium at every event if we get everything right, if we have clean first corners, good starts, clean lap one and things fall our way. And I think that didn’t happen in Mexico.”
São Paulo ahead
With São Paulo’s F1 race weekend a Sprint event, Mercedes has only one free practice session to get everything right before Sprint Qualifying on Friday. The team is hopeful after George Russell’s performance in the last Sprint in Austin where he finished P2. That was helped by the McLarens taking each other out.
Lord continued, “So, the focus for Brazil is really getting the starting setup in the right place. It’s a Sprint weekend. We’ve only got one hour of practise and we’re straight into Sprint qualifying on Friday afternoon. So, you need to hit the ground running. We managed that pretty successfully in Austin. If you remember, George was, I think, third or fourth on the grid for the Sprint and then finished second.”
With Ferrari one point ahead in P2, Mercedes hopes to capitalise on its good Sprint performance this season in São Paulo. With the P2 spot in the balance, Lord hopes Mercedes takes it after Abu Dhabi. Red Bull lie in wait as well.
“So, we’ve had good results this year in Sprint weekends so far. We need to capitalize on that, make sure Kimi’s up there in the top five, top six as well and able to bring his contribution to the points scoring and then hopefully, again, build some more advantage in that fight for P2. We’ve fallen just behind Ferrari and we know it’s going to be nail-bitingly close until the final lap in Abu Dhabi, but that’s what every single team member is focused on achieving.”
