Shovlin: The W17 car is effective on tracks of various types.

      Mercedes' chief race engineer Andrew Shovlin, participating in the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast after the British Grand Prix, stated that competitors have significantly closed the gap, and the team needs to continue working on upgrading the W17 car to maintain an advantage over Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.

      Andrew Shovlin: "After the race in Austria, we expected Red Bull to be very strong. Ferrari also clearly looked competitive. We need to focus primarily on our own work and ensure that we are operating effectively as a team and can finish consistently.

      The team continues to bring new updates and improve the car. However, we haven't implemented as large-scale updates on the W17 as some competitors. But every week we strive to find extra speed to maintain our advantage.

      We are fortunate to have a car that is effective on different types of tracks. Although, it's likely not just luck, as we have worked hard to create a versatile car.

      A huge amount of preparation is done before each race to set up the car correctly and achieve the best results. In recent years, tracks like Monaco and Austria have been challenging for us, so it's nice to see that we were able to change the situation.

      However, Spa is a very unusual track, especially in terms of energy management. So there is a lot of work ahead to ensure that we can find the right pace right away."