The upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix represents a new opportunity for Mercedes, which hopes to end its drought of poles after its latest car improvements. Currently, the German team leads the Formula 1 2026 championship with a distance of 145 points ahead of its closest rival, Ferrari.
Since its last major update in Montreal in early May, Mercedes has opted for minor modifications. Meanwhile, both Ferrari and McLaren have introduced more aggressive developments, allowing these teams to close the gap with the silver arrows.
Although Mercedes won the first six races of the season, it has seen other teams, such as McLaren and Ferrari, secure two victories each in the last eight races. Therefore, the team is confident it can regain its rhythm in Malaysia between October 2 and 4, in a race that marks the return of F1 to the Asian country.
In a recent appearance on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast, track engineering director Andrew Shovlin noted: «We still don’t have many updates for Baku, because there the key is straight-line speed rather than downforce. We hope the car will perform well in Baku. The requirements for the race are different, and then we will have improvements for Malaysia, where we expect to make a significant step forward».
After the victory in Monza and Madrid with standout driver Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes has not achieved pole position since the race in Spa in July. It has been a challenging period, with McLaren also taking pole on three occasions. This contrasts with the start of the season, where Mercedes dominated qualifying in the first ten races.
Shovlin concludes by highlighting that the fight for victories is getting tighter, with small differences marking the distinction between the top positions and sixth place. The diversity of circuits makes each race a challenge from which the team hopes to extract maximum performance.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
