Mercedes’ beginning to the 2024 season has been in turmoil due to the disappointing W15 challenger. The Brackley-based team is currently way behind the pecking order in fourth. The outfit will introduce in-season updates to the challenger to gain some pace from it. Toto Wolff has showcased his resentment towards yet another failed chassis developed during the ongoing ground-effect era.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton faced a dire situation at the Chinese GP where he was eliminated from the Q1 qualifying session. The team was ‘experimenting’ with the chassis which caused such issues.
Toto Wolff reckoned that Mercedes’ challengers during the ground-effect era had been difficult to drive. The team principal recalled George Rusell’s quotes about the W15 being the ‘most complicated’ car he drove over the Chinese weekend.
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. Toto Wolff said, as reported by formu1a.uno.
The team principal reflected upon the Japanese GP where the challenger was at its best. Yet, the team couldn’t score impressive results over the weekend and again faced issues. Mercedes’ chassis in Suzuka was competitive at high speeds but slow in the corners.
The unexpected issues with the challenger are making the team lose out on crucial points early on. As a result, Wolff had to accept that the challenger’s performance changed from ‘day to night.’
In Suzuka there was the best Mercedes in recent years, but then we didn’t achieve important results the other two days. 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. The car changes from day to night, Toto Wolff noted.
Toto Wolff claims Mercedes can see their ‘real position’ in the 2024 season
Mercedes managed a P2 finish in the 2023 season despite evident challenges during the second year of the new regulations. However, the 2024 campaign has been highly disappointing for the team due to its current position. Hence, Toto Wolff reflected upon the reasons why Brackley was able to achieve a P2 past season. Wolff declared that Ferrari wasted multiple opportunities and McLaren was never in competition with Mercedes in the previous season.
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. Toto Wolff mentioned.
Such conditions in 2023 made it feel like Mercedes was the prime competitor to the highly dominant Red Bulls. However, now that the rival teams have improved a lot and closing in on Milton Keynes, Mercedes got a reality check. Hence, Wolff mentioned that Brackley saw the ‘real position’ that they deserved this season, courtesy of the disappointing W15 challenger.
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. Toto Wolff concluded.
Regardless of the issues, Mercedes will continue to battle it out on the track and try to score a better end to the season. There are still 19 races left for the 2024 season as Brackley will look over their degrading form. The team needs to rediscover their form to return back to their old winning ways.
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