Unstable W15 limits effect of Mercedes advances

May 10, 2024 10:40

Mercedes has admitted that the driving difficulties faced by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell with the W15 are limiting the benefit of updates introduced to the car in 2024. The German team accelerated the implementation of a new floor for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix , but had yet another performance below expectations. After a Sprint race without any points scored, Hamilton finished only sixth, while Russell was eighth in Sunday’s GP.

Mercedes track engineering director Andrew Shovlin said the upgrade worked as expected and there are more packages planned for the next stage at Imola. However, he acknowledged that the impact of future improvements may be limited until the team resolves W15’s inconsistent behavior.

“We managed to take half of our upgrade kit to Miami and the other half will arrive at Imola,” Shovlin said in a Mercedes post-race debrief video. “We are working hard for the next races to try to bring new features as well.”

Although the new floor works as expected, Mercedes faces strong competition. “McLaren, for example, brought a big package and seems to have moved forward,” said Shovlin. “Furthermore, the driving problems the drivers are experiencing make it difficult to see the entire performance as a positive step.”

“What happens is that the car can behave very differently from one session to another, and until we resolve that, we will always limit the benefit we can get from this type of update,” he added.

Shovlin stated that the team understands what needs to be done to improve the car’s handling and that there is a schedule of updates for the next races. “There is a lot of hard work going on, but we hope to start seeing the fruits of this soon,” he concluded.

Download our official app to Android It is iPhone and receive notifications of the latest news.