Mercedes to arrive in Miami with new features to make driving easier
The Mercedes team has revealed that it is working on new components, aimed at solving the underlying balance « problems » with its car in the coming races, which are holding it back in Formula 1 this season.
The German manufacturer has experienced a difficult start to the 2024 season, especially with its W15 which has shown flashes of speed but has struggled to ensure consistency throughout race weekends. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have sometimes faced a feeling of knife-edge sharpness, as Mercedes has not managed to find a setup that exploits the potential it believes is still locked in this car.
While the team hopes that a set of aerodynamic improvements planned for the next race in **Miami** will bring an overall improvement to its performance, it is also planning other changes to its car in the upcoming Grand Prix.
Speaking during the team’s regular post-race video debrief, Technical Director James Allison revealed that the upcoming introduction of new parts on the car is specifically aimed at improving its handling.
New features in Miami.
« We have enhancement packages coming up for the car, as well as components that, we hope, will address the underlying balance issue that is causing us difficulties,” he announced. […] Of course, the challenge we face in the upcoming races is trying to evolve both the car settings and the parts we bring to the car so that it improves. »
« Even if it’s painful to talk like this after a weekend like this, I just have to remember that there will be more races in the future once we have implemented these improvements, once we are back in the spotlight and making progress, then the joy of talking about it will be immense.
James Allison stated that even though the team delivered a well-executed race in China during the 2024 Grand Prix to double the points, the overall performance was far from the high standards that he and Mercedes expected.
« We have a car somewhat limited in terms of the front end, especially in low-speed corners, and that was really highlighted this weekend,” he added. « If you have front tires that don’t want to turn, it means that drivers have to wait an eternity before accelerating out of the corner and you lose time in the lap.”
« In extremis, to make the car turn in a curve, they have to take it with the accelerator to free up the rear a bit, which destroys the rear tires and eventually overheats at the rear and limits you at the front. »
High expectations for the Miami Grand Prix.
James Allison announced that in Miami, Mercedes also had to change its approach to mid-weekend configuration changes. Both drivers made major changes between the sprint race and the main Grand Prix, but it did not bring the expected progress. Indeed, this year teams are allowed to adjust settings between the sprint race and the race’s qualifying sessions on Saturday since the cars come out of Parc Fermé after each race.
We learned over the weekend that if you want to be ambitious, be ambitious in the sprint race and then adapt that to the main race rather than the reverse, he said.
« I hope that we will place the car in a better position and that the improvements we will make in Miami will serve us well in a very tight field, at least in qualifications. […] In the battle part that we lead, a few hundredths can sometimes make the difference and a few tenths would make all the difference. So I look forward to seeing how it will all unfold. »
