From testing in 2022 until May’s Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes pioneered the use of its 'zeropod' car architecture. It then switched the W14 to run a downwash philosophy, as favoured by Red Bull, but with the addition of a ‘waterslide’ akin to that of McLaren and Aston Martin.
With the upgrade fitted, Hamilton led a 2-3 result in the following Spanish GP. But Mercedes had also enjoyed a Barcelona boost in 2022 when George Russell held on to third place.
Since then, Hamilton has scored a brace of third places and took pole in Hungary after Max Verstappen lost time in Q3. But the ‘supertimes’ metric - which records each team’s fastest lap during a race weekend - indicates Mercedes has gone from a 0.504% (Monaco) deficit to Red Bull to 0.502% (Silverstone) and 0.866% (Spa).
Despite this, Hamilton has praised the “big steps” made by the team, saying: “I've been incredibly proud of everybody. Everyone has been working insanely hard.
“We've been making big steps. I think the biggest step we took was when we got to Monaco and the car has really progressed a lot since then.
“We have a better understanding of where to position the car. It's been a lot more consistent - podiums, top-five finishes - which has been great.
“And, generally, we've been getting solid, great reliability. So, there's lots and lots of good bits.”
Source: Autosport