Lewis Hamilton has revealed that Mercedes’ path to race wins from a “terrible” Formula 1 car was to add downforce in the right areas.

Mercedes began this season believing that its revised W15 car concept had eliminated the stubborn features that had hampered its predecessor.

However, Mercedes has suffered a setback in recent races, with the team having to contend with an inconsistent car that has struggled to optimise across various cornering speed ranges.

But an aggressive development plan in Monaco, including a revised front wing, has catapulted Mercedes back into regular competition at the sharp end.

George Russell ended the marque’s drought in Austria by taking advantage of a collision between the leaders, while at Silverstone he led the pole position with his teammate.

However, Russell was left disappointed when he was unable to take part in the race due to a water leak, while Hamilton ended Mercedes’ 945-day winless streak by outpacing his rivals.

Hamilton, who will move to Ferrari in 2025, explained that providing downforce in the right places has been effective in Mercedes’ recent transformation.

Asked where Mercedes’ car has transformed compared to earlier in the season, Hamilton said: “Everywhere. Everywhere is better.

“For example, coming from Bahrain the car felt very bad and the progress we have made in setting up and fine-tuning the car to optimise the aero package.

“This team has never had any trouble improving performance.

“But where to put that performance in particular was always a big question mark on this generation of car, and where we get the downforce was also a big question mark.

“Yes, but now the engineers at the factory have done a great job.”

Mercedes’ struggles earlier this season led Russell to claim the team had overcompensated in its efforts to address the W14’s shortcomings.

But while Mercedes’ renewed competitiveness is a stark contrast to its struggles under the current rules, Russell says it is thanks to “small changes” that its huge potential is being unlocked.

“I think we made some small changes that made a big impact,” Russell said.

“We knew from the beginning of this year that the base level of this car was significantly better than what we had in previous years.

“But we went from an oversteer car last year to an understeer car this year. And now we’ve reversed that and found the happy medium.

“When you have the balance in a good place, the tyre temperatures are in the right range and the lap time really goes up in a positive way.

“It wasn’t a significant change but it made a big difference in the lap time.”