14/10/2025 06:55
Toto Wolff has revealed that Mercedes is "curious" to discover if
it can continue its recent progress this weekend in the United
States Grand Prix, following an "unexpected" win in Singapore.
Ahead of the Singapore GP, Mercedes was not tipped as a potential
victory contender, due to hot and humid conditions traditionally
being a weakness for the Silver Arrows. That looked to be the case
after a difficult Friday for George Russell, which saw the Briton
crash and miss valuable running in second practice. However, the
W16 came alive from qualifying onwards, with Russell having secured
pole position before converting it into a comfortable second win of
the season. It was a result which initially left the
Brackley-based outfit surprised, although it has since been
revealed by Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin
that adjustments to the car were made after practice. Mercedes has
been working on looking after its rear tyres in hot conditions,
with its adjustments having made a positive impact across
Azerbaijan and Singapore. The hope for Wolff, Mercedes' team
principal, is that it can continue to perform at the Circuit of the
Americas and the races which follow, although recognises the
challenge ahead in regard to the variety of tracks. "We come off
the back of a strong result in Singapore, taking victory with
George and P5 for Kimi," said Wolff. "Not only was that unexpected,
our level of performance across Saturday and Sunday showed it was
no fluke. "That has been the story of the season somewhat, where
it isn't clear which team will be leading the way from
weekend-to-weekend. "We were also good in Azerbaijan so we are
curious to see if we can maintain the step we have made with the
W16 into this next run of races across the Americas. "They are
very different layouts and challenges to those two street circuits,
so we are heading a little into the unknown, but that
unpredictability is what makes our sport so enjoyable."
