Lewis Hamilton’s W12 will be equipped with the more powerful engine that is in his pool for Saudi Arabia, Mercedes has revealed.
Hamilton took a fresh engine at the Brazilian Grand Prix, rising from last to fifth in Sprint, before carving his way through from 10th to beat Max Verstappen to victory.
Hamilton did not have that engine equipped in his W12 en route to a dominant pole position and victory at last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix.
“If we look at the track in Saudi I think it should suit us, for Lewis we have got the more powerful engine to go in the car so that’s going to give him a useful boost,” said trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
“There’s two [engines] that we are racing and [in Qatar] we had the less powerful of the two in the car due to the nature of the circuit. That side of it is in a good place at the moment.”
Shovlin nonetheless emphasised that Mercedes cannot get overly confident heading into the next round due to the topsy turvy nature of the 2021 title fight.
“The track should suit the car but then we would have probably said that in Austin we felt we should have been able to put together a decent set-up and take the fight to Red Bull and they had a bit of an edge there,” he said.
“So we’re always cautious to go to a race thinking it’s all going to go our way.
“What we do know though are the things we need to get right on the set-up, on the tyres, how they’re working, and that’s what we’re going to be busy doing, making sure we’ve taken every opportunity to arrive there in good shape.”
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