Hamilton wants to 'frighten' rivals in Austria

Lewis Hamilton hopes an upgraded Mercedes will "frighten" his rivals for the Formula 1 championship at this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows have brought their first major aerodynamic update to the Red Bull Ring, a track that they have dominated in recent years.

Since Austria's return to the F1 calendar in 2014, Mercedes have won all four grands prix, Hamilton victorious in 2016, with Valtteri Bottas taking the flag first 12 months ago.

Mercedes have seen similar runs of consecutive wins in China and Canada snapped this year, however Hamilton heads to the Styrian mountains on a high after winning in France a week ago.

Bolstering Hamilton's resolve further is the slew of new bodywork that Mercedes will hope can eke out even more lap time across the weekend.

"Up until now we've not really had a lot of development parts on the car, so it's great to see," he said.

"I'm aware that the guys have been working increasingly harder to try and make sure that we bring quality rather than quantity.

"So it's great to see some new bits here this weekend, and I'm excited to try them on track.

"It will undoubtedly help us in our battle to frighten the other guys.

"I'm excited because when you bolt something to the car – which we haven't really bolted to the car this year, it's one of the first real serious upgrades – it's great when you get out there.

"You feel the first couple of points [of downforce] straight away in a certain corner, you feel those improvements.

"I'm looking forward to experiencing it, and trying to figure out where those improvements are on the circuit.

"They mentioned it to me ages ago, but I don't really think about that stuff, I only think about how I can get the car in the right ballpark so I [can] do what I do.

"But hopefully that will help me do it more."