Mercedes finds it 'really encouraging' to see Lewis Hamilton 'tag onto the back of the front two' at 2022 F1 Canadian GP

Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott feels Lewis Hamilton’s improved pace in the 2022 F1 Canadian GP was an encouraging sign of progress. The British technical head, however, believes in being realistic and expects more improvements to be brought in next weekend to make them quicker.

Speaking in a team debrief video on YouTube, Elliott said:

“I think it is really encouraging to see Lewis [Hamilton] be able to tag onto the back of the front two. think we looked like we were in decent shape with the degradation with the tyres. I think, at that point of the race, it was pretty clear to Lewis that, barring some collision up front, we didn’t quite have the pace to compete and get ourselves into that fight and he would have sensibly brought the car home in the position it was in.”

The Mercedes team director felt Hamilton's pace on the hard tires was surprising as he caught up with Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in the closing stages of the race. Elliott felt the improved pace was a positive sign but they are being realistic when it comes to their performance.

Encouraged by the improved pace, Elliott said:

“I think from my point of view what’s really nice is to see a bit more pace from the car on Sunday. Also to find some direction, I think we are starting to understand our issues, we are starting to make strides forward. But we are very realistic, we’ve got our feet properly on the ground and we know we’ve got to work really hard from here. We’ve got to turn that understanding into parts that we can bring to make the car going quicker and we are trying to do that as quickly as we can.”

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Mercedes confirm bringing upgrades to the 2022 F1 British GP

Mike Elliott confirmed that Mercedes will be bringing in upgrades to improve their car at the 2022 F1 British GP, so one can expect them to be bouncing less. The Silver Arrows technical chief, however, chose to be cautiously optimistic about their expectations at Silverstone since their rivals Ferrari and Red Bull will also be bringing upgrades and improvements to their cars.

Outlining his expectations from the event this weekend, Elliott said:

“We will be bringing new bits to Silverstone, we will be trying to push the car forward, trying to get some pace from the car we’ve got or from the package we’ve got as well as the new bits we are going to add to it. I think at the same time though we have to be honest with ourselves and say that at the moment we are just a little bit behind those front runners in Ferrari and Red Bull. And in a normal race I think it is going to be tough. I think Silverstone will be a circuit that suits us a little bit better, like Barcelona did, but maybe it will be just a little bit difficult.”

With the last three races being held at street venues on an exceptionally bumpy track surface, Mercedes were preoccupied with their bouncing issues. With Silverstone being a conventional racing circuit, Elliott is hoping for it to be similar to Barcelona, where the track suited them better.