After the heat in Austria, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admits a dose of cold, wet England might not be a bad thing this weekend.
The big weakness of the W10 was revealed as the team struggled to cool the cars in Spielberg, meaning their performance in the race was far below their rivals.
And Wolff is keen for last year’s hot summer sunshine at Silverstone not to return again.
“I’m really hoping for the typical English weather at Silverstone so we can gain a little bit of time to sort our problems out,” he said in his preview.
“There is no alternative than to fix our problems for the coming hot races, Hockenheim and Budapest. There is no other option.”
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Last year, however, also saw Ferrari’s engine strengths put them equal with Mercedes at the British circuit and ultimately, Sebastian Vettel ended what had been a five-year winning streak for the Brackley-based team at their home race.
“The power deployment maybe isn’t as much of a differentiator through the fast corners so I think Silverstone should be much more to our liking,” Wolff added.
“Maybe not as much as Paul Ricard, but much better than Austria.”
Perhaps boosting Mercedes’ outlook is a pessimistic prediction by Ferrari chief Mattia Binotto about his team’s chances of repeating their 2018 success.
“Silverstone is one of the toughest tracks of the season, providing a real test of a car’s set-up and balance,” he noted.
“Tyres also come under a lot of strain here and the amount they wear plays a key role in how your race pans out.
“We do not expect Silverstone to suit our car particularly well, but at every race, we have seen that the balance of power can change, often unexpectedly.”
As the Scuderia look to address their lack of performance this season, Binotto also revealed more tweaks rather than updates were coming to the SF90.
“For the British Grand Prix we are bringing a further small aerodynamic modification as we continue to push hard on the development of our car,” he explained.
“The weekend will also be an opportunity to increase our understanding of the recent work we did, which has seen us close the gap to our competitors on specific types of track.”