Photo: Race Pictures

Mercedes: 'If we do a good job, we're in the mix with Ferrari and Max'

16:29, 19 Sep

Updated: 17:56, 19 Sep

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byKada Sarkozi

Mercedes' Andrew Shovlin aims for Mercedes to be in the mix against Ferrari and Red Bull in Baku.

Antonelli driving the Mercedes car in Azerbaijan - Photo: Race Pictures

Looking ahead to the weekend in Azerbaijan, Mercedes' trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, hopes to be in the mix with the other frontrunners.

"It's quite a different circuit to Montreal. What's similar? A lot of low-speed corners and you've got relatively straight braking phases.

"So that's definitely similar, but you're at a much lower downforce level and then street circuits bring their own challenges," he began in Baku.

At the Canadian GP, the German team won its only race of the year with George Russell. Shovlin remained more cautious in terms of Mercedes' aims for this weekend.

"We're not coming here expecting a repeat of Montreal, that definitely suited the car. I think what we've seen in recent races is a lot of the midfield have been developing well.

"Ferrari have brought improvements. Red Bull had a strong patch recently. So we'll be delighted if we're in the fight. But as I said, we're not expecting this to be a cut-and-paste of Montreal weekend," he explained.

Last year, Mercedes showed great pace in Las Vegas, claiming a one-two finish.

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Shovlin emphasized that he does not classify circuits as inherently “good or bad," despite the American track being potentially the best for the team.

"We've probably lost a bit of pace in the faster corners recently, so you would say, well, Vegas could be one that suits us, particularly that it's a cool circuit.

"As I said, we'll see how we go here and that will certainly give us a steer on what we would expect when we get there.

"But when we do a good job, we're certainly in the mix with Ferrari, we're normally in the mix with Max. And that's what we're going to be focused on rather than too much saying this will be a good circuit, that will be a bad circuit," the Brit concluded in Azerbaijan.