Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin confirmed the team is “working hard” on upgrades, given the gap they face to McLaren.

The opening two rounds of the season see the Silver Arrows sat second in the Constructors’ standings, while George Russell is third in the early Drivers’ Championship, nine points behind leader Lando Norris.

Mercedes ‘working hard’ on W16 upgrades with McLaren ‘probably the team to beat’

Team principal Toto Wolff said after the Chinese Grand Prix that Mercedes were “clearly the second fastest team” during the race, above Ferrari and Red Bull but behind McLaren on outright pace on the evidence available in Shanghai.

He added they were “not far away” from the pacesetters in McLaren, but Shovlin admitted the Woking-based team appear to hold the edge on their rivals for now.

With that, and an upcoming triple-header, in mind, he confirmed the team are working on their first upgrades to the W16 to bring as much performance as possible.

“Well, we’ve shown that we’ve got a car that works well over a range of circuits,” Shovlin said in the team’s post-China debrief.

“What we’ve also seen, though, is that McLaren are probably the team to beat. Max is pretty quick. Ferrari certainly don’t look like they’re far behind and they’ve had a bit of bad luck in the last few races. So it’s a pretty tight fight at the front.

More on Mercedes and their start to the season

👉 Finding the next Kimi Antonelli: How Mercedes scouts for new top talent

👉 Mercedes junior team for 2025: The drivers looking to emulate George Russell’s road to F1 glory

“We’re working hard to try and bring development to the car because, as I said, we think that we need to close that gap to McLaren in particular.

“But we’ve got three very exciting circuits. So Suzuka, that’s a fantastic track. Very flowing, very fast. A lot of drivers have that as their favourite on the calendar.

“First time for Kimi [Antonelli], though, and that’s quite a tall order for such a young driver to be going there on their third race. But he’s excited to drive that.

“Then on to Bahrain. Well, we know Bahrain because we’ve been testing there. It has its own challenges, but hopefully we’ll be at least in the fight for podiums. And then Saudi Arabia. Well, that’s a street track. Quite smooth. Again, a relatively new tarmac and that throws up its own challenges. So three very different circuits.

“And by the time we’ve done five, we’ll probably get some idea as to the real order. But as I said, it’s just exciting to start a season with a car that’s working well, that the drivers are enjoying driving. It’s much more predictable and we’re looking forward to the remainder.”

Read next: FIA in ‘four or five’ teams admission over latest flexi-wing clampdown