Mercedes admit a podium at the Canadian Grand Prix is going to be much more tricky than it was for them in Barcelona.
The Spanish Grand Prix yielded the Silver Arrows' best result of the season so far. Lewis Hamilton finished second while team-mate George Russell drove from 12th on the grid to join him on the podium.
It was a positive indication of how effective their new car upgrades have been. Though team boss Toto Wolff admitted after the race that the circuit was well suited to their car.
That means their result in Montreal this weekend may end up being a more representative assessment of where they stand among their rivals. Red Bull have the quickest car by far, but behind them second place is all to play for.
Mercedes jumped into second place with their Barcelona result. But Aston Martin will aim to leapfrog them this weekend, while trackside engineering director also picked out Alpine as a potential podium challenger.
Asked if Mercedes' Barcelona result was down to the track or their upgrades, he said: "Well, probably both are true. The fact is that the update kit works very well around circuits like Barcelona with a lot of high-speed performance.
"Although, the car itself would have still been okay there because we've been better at the fast circuits and the front-limited tracks. We ended up with a really good balance and really good race pace.
"Now, where we are going to go next week, Montreal, it's a very different circuit. There are more low-speed corners, quite a lot of straight-line full throttle and we would expect more of a challenge there.
"We are not thinking that we are going in nipping at the heels of Red Bull. We are going in there prepared for a battle with Ferrari, Aston Martin, and maybe even Alpine."
Aston Martin have brought a swathe of their own upgrades with them to Canada and team owner Lawrence Stroll is feeling confident about their chances. He set his son Lance, who drives for the team, the target of joining Fernando Alonso on the grid in what would be their best result of 2023 to date.
