Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has indicated that the W15 faces a fundamental issue, stating that “there is only so much you can tune” before essential elements must be fixed.
Despite this challenge, Wolff affirms the team’s commitment to enhancing performance throughout the season, aiming to “unlock” further potential.
Mercedes commenced the season with a notably slower pace compared to previous years, as highlighted by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton’s failure to secure a top-five finish in the initial two races.
During the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Hamilton voiced concerns about the rear stability of his 2024 challenger, attributing his eighth-place finish in Jeddah qualifying to the car’s bouncing.
Addressing the challenges faced by the Silver Arrows in the new season, Wolff emphasized the need to address these issues. He expressed optimism that work on simulators would provide crucial data, enabling the team “to come back in Melbourne stronger”.
Wolff stated: “Our simulations point us in a direction and this is the kind of set-up range that we then choose, where you put the right rear wing on.
“I think you’ll gain a few tenths or not if you get the set-up right or wrong, but there’s not a massive corridor of performance. It’s more a fundamental thing, that we believe that the speed should be there. We measure the downforce but we don’t find it in lap time.
“It is not by a lack of trying, we push hard and we are going to give it a massive push in the next week or two with more data to understand to come back in Melbourne stronger.”
Despite the challenges Hamilton encountered with the Mercedes, he successfully held off Oscar Piastri’s McLaren for several laps during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. However, the nature of this battle, for ninth place, starkly contrasts with what the 103-time race winner is accustomed to.
The 2024 season represents Hamilton’s final opportunity to secure victories with the German team before his anticipated switch to Ferrari in 2025. Nevertheless, there remains optimism, with the Austrian team boss asserting that they will unleash the performance potential of the W15.
“This is a mission we are on, and I am 100% certain we are going to unlock that performance,” Wolff continued.
“The big factor is that we are lacking in the high-speed [corners] and we are just real weak.
“We are missing downforce beyond the steps that you would have with a bigger rear-wing.
“There is something which we don’t understand because we are quick everywhere else, and when we have a smaller rear-wing, we compensate what we are losing through the corners, but it is just in the high-speed we are losing all the lap-time.”
