Mercedes caused something of a shock when their car arrived in Austria looking dramatically different from the one that raced to victory in France last weekend. And after testing their upgraded machine for the first time on Friday, championship leader Lewis Hamilton and team mate Valtteri Bottas have given the revised package the thumbs up.

Amongst the myriad changes on the Silver Arrows are a switch to more Ferrari-like sidepods, revised bargeboards and new rear wing endplates, and Bottas – who finished second behind Hamilton in both Friday sessions – said the initial feeling was "that they work well".

“The team has done a really good job delivering the updates. Every single person in the team has worked really hard on them,” said Bottas.

“It worked exactly as expected which is down to all the hard work behind the scenes. Especially the rear end of the car was really stable today.

“Last year I had severe blistering on the rear-left tyre, which could potentially be an issue again as it is going to be warmer again this Sunday. So it's good that the rear felt stable today. However, we do still have a bit of balance work to do to get the most out of the car.”