Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell said after the Austrian Grand Prix that their Mercedes car is progressing towards the front runners, but they are not quite there yet.
The two British drivers had rather similar weekends in the sense that they both had incidents in qualifying before managing to salvage quite a lot in the end from the Grand Prix on Sunday, with Hamilton third and Russell fourth.
Indeed, that would suggest that the Mercedes is continuing to improve in terms of race pace but both have said that there is still some work to do.
Speaking after the race, Hamilton first of all had this to say:
"To get third and fourth is really good points and so we've just got to keep our heads down and keep chipping away. We're slowly eating into the guys ahead but they're still pretty quick."
Russell, meanwhile, commented further:
"[The gap is] definitely closing but each time we've brought an update it's been at a track that has naturally suited our car so we don't really want to get too carried away as we saw in Barcelona where with one upgrade to the car we took a big step forward and then went back to reality [in the races after.]
SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA - JULY 10: Race winner Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari, Second placed Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing and Third placed Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes celebrate on the podium during the F1 Grand Prix of Austria at Red Bull Ring on July 10, 2022 in Spielberg, Austria. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
"Here [in Austria] as a team we've never been that fast and I think next time [in France] we'll be a bit closer but we're not going to be with the top two [teams] yet."
Whilst they're still working hard to get where they want to be, Mercedes continued to maintain their happy knack of picking up the pieces when others had issues.
Both Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez retired before the race and so the Silver Arrows earned another decent points haul, with the second half of the season set to begin next time out in France.