Mercedes arrives at the Miami GP looking to make amends after a difficult start to the season. Toto Wolff believes in improving the performance of the W15 car based on the first minor upgrades of 2024 that both drivers will have this weekend.
The German team did not have the best start to the season. Although in China Lewis Hamilton won an important podium in the sprint race, the harsh reality followed and both drivers were again far from the podium.
This is just a continuation of the problems they had last year. But how long will it last? The key is to find the ones that alleviate what is causing the car to perform poorly.
In addition, the correlation between the wind tunnel and the real condition on the track is again being questioned, something that has been a big problem since the beginning of the season.
The first step in the so-called ‘evolution race’ will start with small improvements like the ones the Silver Arrows boss says he will have at the sprint race weekend in Miami, which is a bit strange on the schedule itself.
“We are ready for Miami and the first race of the year in the United States of America. It’s a challenging track and, with the second sprint in 2024, it will be another interesting test for the team,” said Wolff.
“We didn’t have the best performance in China: we made too many changes to the settings ready before qualifying. It put us on the defensive for the rest of the weekend, although both drivers did a good job of scoring points.”
“We will look for better performance in Miami and optimize the car. We know we need to achieve more performances and that’s why this weekend we will bring our first small improvements of the season,” added Toto.
This is the first time that two sprint weekends have coincided back to back. With only one hour of free practice, teams will need to make the most of their track time to extract the required amount of data before heading straight into sprint qualifying.
Wolff emphasized that racing in the United States is always special. Miami is the first of three events scheduled in the North American country for 2024. In addition, it is an event that has a large number of off-track activities throughout the week. Mercedes was already with Lewis Hamilton, who delighted New Yorkers with a surprise showrun on Fifth Avenue.
“Miami is also one of the busiest off-track events of the year for the team. We have already enjoyed a few fantastic days in New York with our WhatsApp partner. It’s fantastic to see the growth of both their brand and Formula 1 in the United States, to the point where we took over the Empire State Building and held a showrun down Fifth Avenue,” he explains.
“It highlights the impact of our sport in the United States and we hope to capitalize on that growth. We have a full calendar of events in Florida and we expect a positive weekend both on and off the track,” added Toto Wolff.
