Lewis Hamilton brought down to earth as Mercedes fear major setback

Mercedes director of track engineering Andrew Shovlin has warned Lewis Hamilton that he could be as low as 10th at the Canadian Grand Prix despite the team's promising result in Barcelona last time out. The Spanish Grand Prix was Mercedes' first real opportunity to show off its major upgrades, as its car was limited to Monaco.

And there were strong signs on Saturday that Mercedes were heading in the right direction, with Hamilton initially the closest challenger to Max Verstappen for pole in Q1 and Q2 respectively, only to fall in Q3. It didn't matter in the race, with Mercedes able to overtake their main challenger to put both cars on the podium for their best result of the season.

It's still not exactly where Hamilton wants to be, as his main focus is still on challenging Verstappen for race wins in the near future. Speaking after the race, Hamilton was encouraged by the direction the team was heading with hopes of battling for wins by the end of the year.

But that progress could be slowed down next time in Montreal, with Shovlin warning that the sluggish conditions at the Canadian Grand Prix will not favor their car design. "The thing is, the update kit works really well at circuits like Barcelona with a lot of high-speed performance," Shovlin said on

"We were better on the fast circuits and on the limited tracks. We ended up with a very good balance and a very good race pace. Now, where we are going to go next week, Montreal, is a very good different circuit. There are more low speed corners, lots of full throttle on the straights and we expect more challenge there.

"We don't think we'll be nipping at Red Bull's heels. We are aware that Canada is likely to be a bigger challenge than the Sunday we just spent in Barcelona. We think it will be more along the lines of some of the previous races where we were definitely in the pack with Ferrari, with Aston, and now Alpine seem to have joined that group.

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"But it's great to race there. It will be a lot of fun and we will definitely fight to find the maximum performance possible. The way the grid overlaps now, you can be P2 or you can be P10, and there are only a few tenths in it."

Mercedes have edged out Aston Martin in the constructors' championship following their promising result in Barcelona. Hamilton is now just 12 points behind former team-mate Fernando Alonso in the battle to be the best of the rest.

And the British motor racing superstar has notoriously enjoyed the Canadian Grand Prix, holding the joint record with Michael Schumacher for most wins with seven wins. His last comeback was in 2019 and he hasn't been able to finish on the podium since then.