11/08/2025 17:30
Mercedes chief communications officer Bradley Lord has revealed
that the Silver Arrows have no further "big upgrades" planned, in
its fight with Ferrari and Red Bull for second. The Brackley-based
outfit has experienced a mixed opening 14 rounds, which has seen
George Russell secure six podiums, including, a race victory in
Canada. Russell has led Mercedes to big points on a regular basis,
with rookie Kimi Antonelli having struggled for consistency in
recent rounds. Antonelli did claim an podium also in the Canadian
GP, but entered the summer break with six non-point finishes from
eight races. Like its rivals in the fight for second in the
constructors' title, Mercedes has thrown considerable upgrade
packages at its car; however, no further significant parts are
being developed. Lord confirmed that he would be "surprised" to
see any team introduce a major package after the summer break, as
most outfits start to increase its focus on the new regulations
next year. "Yeah, the big upgrades, you would be surprised to see
anyone bringing big upgrades from this point onwards," Lord told
select media including RacingNews365 . "It kind of slightly depends
on the semantics of big whether that means lots of items on the
list of declarations, or whether it means lap time and things like
that. "But, we often see that actually where the development items
dry up, you can still make a lot of progress in your understanding
and learning about the car, even with a relatively static
configuration performance wise. "So, we'll be aiming to do that
and just race as hard as we can for the second part of the season.
We're in a close fight with two other teams for ultimately, P2 in
the championship, and we'll be giving it everything we've got to
end up there at the end of the year." Mercedes eye P2 With 10
rounds remaining, Mercedes currently finds itself third in the
constructors' title, whilst Ferrari is in second. Ferrari,
Mercedes and Red Bull are all targeting second, with McLaren a
comfortable distance ahead. McLaren sit 299 points ahead of the
Scuderia. The scrap for second is much closer, as Mercedes sit just
24 points adrift of Ferrari. Red Bull cannot be ruled out, but are
66 points behind the Maranello-based outfit. Discussing second in
the standings being the target, Lord added: "I think we've run
second for a chunk of the season already. There's a small
performance gap. "The trend at the moment suggests that that we're
going in the wrong direction. "But, yeah, I think if we can unpick
the steps and remove what has become more challenging for the
drivers with the car, then there's no reason to think we can't be
in absolutely taking that fight to Ferrari and to Red Bull for the
rest of the year."
