Mercedes have revealed they could bring upgrades to their car as early as this weekend

Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin has explained to the F1 Nation podcast that Mercedes are looking to make upgrades on their car potentially as early as the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend.

The new Formula 1 season kicked off last weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix, and it was Charles Leclerc who took victory, leading home from Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz.

Behind them, and thanks in no small part to Red Bull’s double retirement, were the Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, with the British pair picking up a 3rd and 4th place respectively despite the early struggles they’ve had with their W13 car.

Few, indeed, are expecting them to get back to winning ways this weekend at the Jeddah Street Circuit but Shovlin has revealed upgrades and tweaks are going to be brought to this weekend’s race if the opportunity is right:

“I think we’ll get some easy gains, I think there is some low-hanging fruit and what we’re hoping is that we can get those in the next race or two.

“We’re working race by race at the moment. The factory is primed to bring absolutely anything they can in the next few days.

“We’re learning with every day. Every time the car is out on track, there is a lot of work going on in the factory, trying to understand the science of what is going on but we are learning every day and if we have got something useful to bring to Jeddah, we’ll make sure we can get it there on the car.”

Shovlin then explained what areas Mercedes were looking at changing most of all with their car:

“There is a lot of everything.

“There is bouncing, the balance is poor, there is a lack of low-speed grip, we’re struggling on traction, the drivability could be better, the tyre warm-up is not good enough and the car’s a bit