Toto Wolff and James Allison describe a greatly evolved W15
The team director of Mercedes and their technical director discussed the various changes made to the W15, which has just been unveiled at Silverstone.
Just one week before the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain, Mercedes has unveiled its brand new W15. After a rather challenging 2022 season, followed by a slightly more encouraging 2023, despite the still significant gap with Red Bull, the Brackley team hopes to close the gap with the reigning world champions.
« We know that we have a mountain to climb to fight at the forefront. There are no miracles in this sport, » commented Toto Wolff, CEO and team principal of Mercedes F1. « But our ambition and determination are strong. Since we have paved this new path, development has progressed favorably. We had several points on our priority list for this car. We will soon see if we have taken the step we aimed for. »
A single-seater that has evolved significantly.
Finally, like most single-seaters of the 2024 season, the current car is an evolution of the previous one. The design of any car is an iterative and lengthy process, explained technical director James Allison. The start of the process goes back to last year. A new car allows the team to make more significant modifications that are not possible during the season. These are decisions made during the previous summer.
The German team unveils significant changes, which include a new chassis and a new transmission casing among others. In terms of aerodynamics, the focus has obviously been placed on the overall efficiency of the car, in order to generate more downforce and reduce drag that will be directed towards the suspensions and tyres.
« A great effort has been made to improve the unpredictable rear-end of the previous car, » Allison continued. « We have worked hard to ensure that both axles, but especially the rear axle, maintain better tire control than on the W14. There have also been some adjustments in areas where we had room for improvement, notably the DRS effect and pit stop performance. »
We are excited about the race for development.
However, it is underneath the car that the main factors of evolution are found. Allison added: « With this current generation of cars, a large part of the performance comes from how the underfloor interacts with the track. Whether the car is efficient or not depends on how this underfloor is allowed to behave aerodynamically. »
We feel like we’ve had a good winter, but only time will tell how big of a step forward we’ve taken. We are focused on getting the most out of the car we’re launching, but we’re excited about the development race that will follow as the regulations are still young and opportunities are multiplying,” concluded the British technical director.
Finally, Toto Wolff has followed his technical director in the overall progress of the team for 2024. I believe that the past two years have been necessary for us to reinvent ourselves in certain areas. This complete overhaul approach is never easy. But we have made progress and we are excited to take the next step with the W15. It won’t be a linear path, but when we stumble, we will pick ourselves up and keep climbing.
After a first day of testing at Silverstone, which is supposed to take place today, Mercedes will officially launch its W15 during the pre-season testing in Bahrain, from February 21st to 23rd.
