The Mercedes Formula 1 team is still tr🍰ying to fully understand its upgraded aerodynamic package, although it is confident the update will perform as hoped.

Mercedes introduced a major aero upgrade last time out ꦑat Hockenheim, including a♑ cooling update to improve its overheating weakness, but mixed weather conditions a🍎nd a nightmare race meant drawing any clear conclusions proved difficult.

Despite its significant development, the Mercedes d🍌uo were beaten to pole position for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton insisted his side’s update is not a “negative at all”, but suspects Mercedes’ rivals are developing at a “steeper pace”.

“We are still trying to undersᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtand it,” Hamilton said.

“I think there are bits of it that are better a✃nd bits of it that are the same. So as I said the other day, we’re just constantly trying to understand it and improve it and I don’t think it’s a negative at all.

“We definitely have moved forward but clearly the others continue to move forward at the same time, at a steeper pace, mayᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤🔴⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚbe.”

Bottas, who missed out on his fifth pole♐ of 2019 by just 0.018s, stressed Mercedes’ latest💮 upgrade has been a “reasonable step forward”.

“Based on everything we saw with the new package and an🀅alysis after last weekend as well it’s working as it should, so it’s a reasonable step forward in terms of 💃downforce and efficiency,” he explained.

“I guess other teams are moving ahead as well, forward as well with the performance but for sure we kind of expected to have a bit of a step compared t🃏o others but I think they are improving as well.

“It’s still a development race for quite some while🌺 before 💖things are done.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he is “100 percent sure” the aero update will deliver the expected performance once the team is able to ge൲t on top of extracting its full potential.

“We are 100 percent sure that the upgrade delivers on the downforce, but like any major change, tuning the car is not al🌼ways trivial,” Wolff added.

“Therefore, we hope that a front wing compare would help us in understanding and it did. But at the end, both drivers decided to run the🐼 new configuration for qualifying.”