Mercedes were the team with the fastest rise a few races ago, winning three of the four races before the summer break. However, the W15 has since struggled for race weekend performance, even with recent na. Mercedes has several theories to explain this – which is why there is uncertainty for this weekend’s Baku Grand Prix .
Despite an almost flawless development program in recent years, McLaren has delayed bringing some of its upgrades to the track.
This hesitation stems from the inherently unpredictable nature of this generation of F1 cars – which often leaves teams wondering what if the updates don’t work.
In this context, there are many question marks at Mercedes. Their latest upgrade package, unveiled at the Dutch GP, has yet to deliver a significant performance improvement to the W15.
The Silver Arrows have been relatively uncompetitive in recent weeks, both in qualifying and racing.
However, Mercedes technical director James Allison is still not sure if the upgrades are responsible for this drop – or if the specific characteristics of the track are to blame.
Mercedes is not sure of the reason for the drop in pace
Mercedes racing director Andrew Shovlin summarizes the situation:
“The harder question we have to answer is is there anything subtle in the handling characteristics that this package might be doing that we haven’t anticipated?”
“It’s quite difficult to judge because the car will behave differently [from] track to track. On some tracks it works very well, on other tracks we struggled with the balance of the bike regardless of the aerodynamic specifications.”
“Yes, the last two races were not as good as some of the previous ones. Maybe it’s a common variation from track to track.”
“But that’s what we’ll be looking at over the next few days. In addition to that, there are other updates that we are making to the system.”
“So there’s a lot to consider, but now we have a lot of data. And we can go away and use the next few days to learn from that.”
Updates are still coming for W15
Although the Brackley plant has some concerns, upgrades are still on the way. Technical director James Allison was confident of the team’s trajectory through 2024. As the year progressed, his belief in the direction of the W15 proved well-founded.
So it stands to reason that Mercedes won’t let a two-race sample size change their development plan.
In addition, Mercedes still has to be careful in the next few months. Baku and Singapore, the next two tracks on the calendar, are not traditional tracks.
Because of this, while data can still be collected, these locations may be an exception from a performance perspective. This will make it even more difficult for Mercedes to draw conclusions from its latest improvements.
Not only does this affect the team’s direction in 2024, it also has ramifications for their 2025 car – which will be an evolution of the W15. After turning things around from the start of last season, Mercedes must work to maintain their upward trajectory.
