Mercedes promise 'sexy' car upgrades to build on dominant start to F1 season

Mercedes have promised their drivers "more obvious" upgrades after their best start to a season for four years. have dominated the season so far and are more than 100 points ahead of their nearest challengers already.

It's the Silver Arrows closest to them with stepping up in absence to lead the team admirably. Third place in Miami on Sunday was the Brit's fourth podium of the year already and teenage team-mate has also made an impressive start.

plan to back their drivers with car improvements on the horizon. "We have actually been bringing upgrades," said technical director James Allison. "They're not particularly enormous or sexy, but they've been coming in a steady trickle.

"There's some that will be more obvious to the outside in the next handful of races. With a bit of luck, they'll improve our fortunes. We're a quarter of the way through the season already. It's been coming at the teams hard and fast.

"It's quite difficult to get upgrades to the car when the races are coming at you in this sort of fashion. Hopefully, the ones that happen in the next two or three races will move the dial a bit for us. We will also continue to try to work on the tyre temperature in the races, that will also improve our fortunes."

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Qualifying has been a particular strength for Mercedes so far this year. Russell has regularly been a contender for pole while 18-year-old Antonelli became F1's youngest pole-sitter in any format by a long way when he secured top spot for the Miami Sprint.

Inexperience at the first corner and a clash with in the pit lane cost him but the race pace isn't quite where it needs to be yet for Mercedes. And Allison admitted that as he assessed their chances of fighting for success at Imola next Sunday.

He said: "Because we've been pretty strong in qualifying for the first several races, I think we can expect to have an okay shout of getting the car reasonably well up the grid in qualifying. With a bit of luck, the upgrades might make that a bit better still.

"But the main thing we'll be focusing on is trying to get that race pace under control, trying to make sure that we deliver on the promise of our Saturdays on the Sunday." Team principal expanded on that after watching Russell finish third but more than 30 seconds adrift of both McLaren cars in Miami.

He said: "We have a really fast car, but we're just not good with the tyres over an extended run and McLaren shows how it's being done to a degree. I think that , with Max, they're managing it better.

"I would say we are solid in what we're doing but [McLaren] are definitely doing an excellent job, by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them. So, this is what we need to look up to and engineer our way out of the topic."