George Russell is convinced that Mercedes will not make the same mistakes with the W15

The year 2023 was disappointing for Mercedes, both from the public’s point of view and from the team’s own perspective. Despite a promising end to the 2022 season with a victory in Brazil, the performances were not up to expectations, even with the new W14 single-seater sporting a black color for a more menacing aspect. Despite some encouraging moments, notably a possible victory in Austin, the season was overall disappointing in terms of success.

For the 2023 season, Mercedes had tried the concept « zero pods » but this choice was quickly abandoned due to unsatisfactory results compared to the competition.

A radically different project for 2024 than 2023

To make up for the delay, Mercedes has adopted Red Bull’s project with the downwash sidepod. The majority of the single-seater has been reworked in preparation for next season. « Almost all components are currently being designed », emphasized Toto Wolff. « We have changed everything because that is the only way to stand a chance with the W15 from 2024. »

The arrangement of the chassis, the airflow, and the weight distribution have been altered, which convinced George Russell of Mercedes’ competitiveness in 2024. Although the 2023 season was not encouraging in terms of overall results, the team still finished in 2nd place in the championship, which provides some continuity.

« Mercedes has been working on the new W15 concept for a long time and there has been so much good feedback on this concept », said George Russell. « I think that last year, everything was a bit rushed. We didn’t have all the information at hand, we might have drawn some hasty conclusions without thoroughly examining the consequences. And we learned when the car hit the ground this year that we had taken a step forward in certain respects, but it was accompanied by a lot of side effects and we hadn’t taken that into consideration. »

A test year

The 2023 season served as a testing ground for Mercedes, allowing to experiment with different settings and components on track. Although the gap with Red Bull was too big to aim for more than a 2nd place in the championship, the team made significant progress against the competition throughout the year. Taking into account the problems encountered, Mercedes should better prepare its single-seater for the 2024 season.

« We have done an excellent job of really understanding what we need », emphasized George Russell. « Obviously, we had an additional 12 months of testing to better understand the car and what brings performance. Last year, we put all our eggs in the same basket and it wasn’t the most successful one. But we have to close a huge gap. Red Bull’s dominance this year is probably the greatest. So we all have a huge task to accomplish. »

Mercedes finished the 2023 season with one place higher than in 2022, and the German team plans to capitalize on this progress for the coming season.