Ross Brawn believes Mercedes managed to find ways of getting more out of the upgrade package introduced for Spain during the Monaco weekend and is now keen to see if that will translate to a step forward in Turkey.
The Brackley-based squad overhauled its W01 for the first European race earlier this month, increasing the car’s wheelbase to aid weight distribution, radically altering the positioning of the engine air vent inlets as well as introducing a raft of aero updates.
However, the team was disappointed to find it qualified well over a second adrift of the dominant Red Bulls at Barcelona as it remained behind its three chief rivals on pace.
Although the requirements for a car to be strong on the tight and twisty Monte Carlo streets are very different to most circuits – and Mercedes duly reverted to the shorter wheelbase for last weekend – Brawn feels it did still succeed in finding set-up options that allow it to exploit more of the updated W01’s potential.
He now hopes those can also be used at the more aerodynamically-demanding Istanbul Park circuit next week.
“We've made some good progress with some of the changes we've made this weekend,” the Mercedes team principal said in Monaco.
“I know Monaco is unusual, and I think we've got to wait until we get to Istanbul to see if they carry through.
“But we've tried a few different things this weekend, and the drivers and engineers have done a very good job of working together to find set-ups which have been good - a little bit different to what we've been running.
“We've got to understand if they're Monaco-specific or something we can carry through to the next races, but there was good progress made.
“I think we saw more of the potential of the Barcelona package.”
The Englishman admits its underperformance at the Spanish Grand Prix came about because of difficulties in getting the tyres to work properly.
He says this wasn’t an issue it experienced in Monaco so, with further analysis work on its Barcelona form to take place, is cautiously optimistic Turkey could witness the first stage of a breakthrough.
“Obviously we weren't in great shape in Barcelona, and we weren't using the tyres properly,” Brawn explained.
“They are quite subtle in how you use them and in Barcelona we couldn't make them work properly.
“In Monaco we seemed to be getting the tyres working, so we've perhaps made a bit of a step change in our performance.
“It's all about getting the tyres to work properly, so if we can do that in Istanbul...
“I wouldn't say we totally understand why we didn't perform as we wanted in Barcelona - we've still got a lot of analysis going on to think it through, and there will be some more changes for Istanbul.
“My feeling is we're not there yet, but I think we've made some progress.”
