Mercedes has confirmed its next big Formula 1 car upgrade will arrive at the forthcoming grand prix in Malaysia, where it hopes to get back into contention for pole.
The Silver Arrows is the runaway leader of the 2026 championship with a 145-point advantage over second-placed Ferrari, despite its last major upgrade package being Montreal in May.
Mercedes has instead preferred to fit minor race-specific updates whereas its nearest challengers Ferrari and McLaren have been significantly more aggressive with developments.
So although Mercedes won the first six grands prix, it has since won four of the last eight as McLaren and Ferrari have closed their respective gaps taking two wins each in that time.
But the German outfit is hoping to reestablish its dominance during the Malaysian weekend on 2-4 October, the race after Baku, as the Asian country replaces Bahrain to make its F1 return.
Speaking on the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show podcast, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: “We haven’t got much new coming to Baku, but actually that’s a circuit that’s more about drag than downforce.
“So the car was good in Monza, hopefully it will work well in Baku. But, you need a car that can have a good straight line speed.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes, James Allison, Mercedes, Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
“There’s other things, though, you need in Baku, like the sort of street circuit nature, almost that Monaco-esque being able to deal with the low speed, keeping all the wheels on the ground.
“And then the updates, well, they’re going to come Malaysia onwards and hopefully we’ll make a decent step.
“I don’t think we’re going to be out front by miles, but hopefully we’ll be back into a position where we can really go into qualifying, knowing that we’re fighting for pole.”
Although Mercedes has won the last two races – Monza and Madrid – via the dominant Kimi Antonelli, it hasn’t actually claimed pole since the Italian went quickest at Spa in July.
So that is a run of four, three of which saw McLaren’s Lando Norris take pole, marking a far cry from the start of 2026 where the Silver Arrows took pole for each of the opening 10 rounds.
“Early in the season, we tended to go thinking, we have a car that if we do a really good job, it should be on pole,” added Shovlin.
“We should be fighting for a race win. Whereas now the margin between finishing first and finishing sixth is one or two tenths and it’s difficult to predict because Monza is a unique track.
“It needs a car that’s quite slippy with low drag and then new circuit like Madring couldn’t be more different. But we just focus on getting the most out of the car and if we win, awesome.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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