Having Positive Upgrade on $141,000 Equipment, Italian Report Tips Mercedes Favorites for Mexican Grand Prix Over Raging Red Bull

Mercedes recently rocked up to the United States GP with a brand new upgrade to their $141,000 worth floor and and the results spoke for themselves. Now, as per a recent report by Formu1a.uno, Mercedes might just end up toppling the dominant Red Bull when F1 heads to Mexico for the next round.

The new floor design that Mercedes came up with, turned out to make a major difference in their performance. Following the Qualifying session at Austin, Hamilton described it as one of the only upgrades in the last few years where he can feel an improvement in the car.

A data analysis by the same media outlet, Formu1a.uno, following the United States GP, revealed that Mercedes were even faster than Red Bull at a point in time during the race. The report stated that even though Verstappen was the fastest driver overall, if the four laps where the both of them were on separate compounds are eliminated, then Hamilton was faster than his rival by about a tenth per lap.

Mercedes are slowly bridging the gap to Red Bull

The improvement that the W14 saw in the high speed sections with their new floor were also acknowledged by team principal Toto Wolff post-race. As per the Formu1a.uno report, before the US GP, the difference between Mercedes and Red Bull in the high speed sections were over 2.5 mph. However, during the race in Austin, it had reduced by a huge margin.

All of this was quite visible during the race as well as Lewis Hamilton managed to catch up with Verstappen by the end of the race. Before being disqualified due to technical issues with the plank underneath the W14, Hamilton had finished P2, just over 2 seconds behind Verstappen.

However, as per the report, Mercedes are not the only team tipped to come away from Mexico with a strong results. McLaren are another team who would be forward to a good outing at the Mexican GP

McLaren might manage to edge past the Bulls

As per the report, McLaren can have an advantage over Red Bull due to the high altitude of the track helping them get rid of the intrinsic drag of the MCL60. In stark contrast, Verstappen recently claimed that the altitude might cause a bit of a problem for the RB19, which, if true, gives a good opportunity to McLaren.

However, as per Lando Norris, the best chances for the Papaya outfit to win a race was at the Qatar GP, which they already lost out on. The Briton believes that the McLaren car can only perform to its full potential at fast flowy tracks like Qatar, and thus, winning is not an expectation anymore for the Woking outfit.