Mercedes is experiencing one of the worst starts to an F1 season in its history. At the moment, the team is in fourth in the Championship, thanks mainly to the poor performance of Lance Stroll in the Aston Martin. The AMR24 of Fernando Alonso is generally capable of finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Mercedes has few points, poor performance and still many doubts. It is no coincidence that Toto Wolff talks more and more about the future. Attention is already being diverted to 2026 as Brixworth works to build a powerful engine.
MERCEDES: HIGH-SPEED IMPROVEMENTS COMPROMISE LOW-SPEED
Toto Wolff is certainly in his trickiest position since joining Mercedes. The Austrian faces a third year of poor performance, having dominated for almost a decade beforehand. In addition, the Silver Arrows are still searching for a replacement for Lewis Hamilton in 2025.
The last three years of these regulations have generally been a flop. Even James Allison is failing to rectify the situation.
“Our cars have always been difficult to drive and difficult to understand. George in China said it was the most complicated car he had ever driven in Qualifying.
“In Suzuka there was the best Mercedes in recent years, but then we didn’t achieve important results the other two days. The car changes from day to night,” admitted Toto Wolff, struggling to explain this situation himself.
At the Chinese GP, their poor starting positions compromised their chances.
Mercedes is also suffering strange behaviour at the start of 2024. The W15 has changed radically in the early stages of this season, but no major progress has been made.
“In Suzuka, we were competitive at high speeds, but we were slow in the corners. If you gain half a second here but lose half a second there, in the end, the equation is zero,” explained the Team Principal.
This change is due to the different floor specifications tested in Bahrain, which the Brackley team alternated in the first two races. Mercedes then chose to use the specification that provides more stability at high speeds. However, this penalises the W15 in the slower sections – where, in Bahrain, it was among the best.
At the same time, Mercedes did not excel in any particular area in China.
“But we know what we changed to get these results, so we now have to put everything together with the data we need available.” This task, of course, is easier said than done.
MCLAREN AND FERRARI GIVE THE MERCEDES DIMENSION. LEWIS A MOTIVATOR EVEN IN DIFFICULT TIMES
However, the Austrian is also very honest about the position of his team and believes that, overall, in these three years, the level has been more or less the same. Still, the feeling changed based on the performance of the other competitors.
“Our luck is that for most of the season last year, McLaren didn’t compete with us, and Ferrari wasn’t always so fast and wasted opportunities.
“This made it seem like we were fighting with Red Bull at times, but now that they have improved, we can see our real position. What was enough last year is no longer enough.”
Not only does the gap between Mercedes and its rivals fluctuate, but it also changes within its own drivers. Set-up experimentation has again returned, something that was especially costly for Hamilton in China.
“The car is difficult to set up, and I think in China, for Lewis, it was very, very far from optimal.
“He was driving on a razor’s edge and chose a setup in which the car simply wouldn’t turn when cornering,” commented Wolff after the race.
Mercedes will bring the first innovations to Miami –“It will be interesting to see their impact on the car.”
Furthermore, in China, the feeling is that Hamilton also paid for an incorrect strategy. Still, the Team Principal believes the W15’s lack of competitiveness is the root issue.
“At the start, the Soft could have given him a hand in overtaking and made up ground… we never found grip with that tyre in the race,” confesses Wolff. In short, he defended the strategic thinking of his strategists.
The W15 did not progress as expected with the setup changes made between the Sprint Race and Qualifying. Ultimately, Lewis Hamilton paid the price. The seven-time world champion, however, does not give up and keeps his morale high.
“He is a professional. Even when the results did not arrive or when he was in difficulty, with George, who was doing better, he supported the whole team. I have doubts that it will be like this until the end.”
