Mercedes says it worked "straight through the summer break" on its engine, in a bid to improve both reliability and performance to ensure it remains ahead in the final nine races of the season.
Whilst Formula 1 regulations stipulate a shutdown of 14 consecutive days over the summer, anything related to the power unit is excluded and therefore Mercedes' engine department, based in Brixworth, was able to work throughout the shutdown unlike the aerodynamic department in Brackley.
Team boss Toto Wolff says this time was spent on "improving the performance and reliability of our Power Unit", adding that he was grateful to those employees that worked through the summer.
"[The] summer shutdown was a welcome break after some very busy weeks in July and early August, but now we’re excited to go racing again," Wolff said ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend.
"While the majority of our colleagues in Brackley had the chance to recharge their batteries for the second half of the season, other team members were carrying the baton over the past weeks.
"Our team members in Brixworth worked straight through the F1 summer break to improve the performance and reliability of our Power Unit.
"It’s great to come back from the summer break knowing that part of the team was still pushing flat out and we are grateful to our colleagues who kept the ball rolling while we were out of office."
Wolff says the team are treating their return to racing as if it were a new season, to ensure they don't take their championship lead for granted.
"We’re leading in both championships, but it doesn’t feel that way," he added. "In the last few years, we saw teams perform very strongly after summer shutdown, so we now we need to keep pushing.
"In that respect, we’re approaching the start to the second half of 2019 more like the start to a completely new season – once again we need to make sure that we leave no room for error and keep raising the bar."
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