Last Updated on March 16 2024, 12:45 pm

Since the introduction of the new ground effect car design regulations in 2022, Mercedes have looked a shadow of their former dominant selves. Lewis Hamilton has spoken publicly a number of times over how the concept of the car is poor and suggested he advised the engineers in Brackley how to fix it.

Toto Wolff claimed this year’s W15 Formula One contender would be a different design when speaking at last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi. “We are changing the concept,” he told Motorsport.com. ”We are completely moving away from how we laid out the chassis, the weight distribution, the airflow. I mean, literally, there’s almost every component that’s being changed because only by doing that, I think we have a chance.”

 

 

 

Hamilton says car “similar to previous years”

Yet feed back from Lewis Hamilton who has scored just 8 points from the two Grand Prix so far, hinted that the car hasn’t changed that much at all.

“I mean, it’s similar to previous years I would say,” the seven times world champion confessed following his disappointing P9 last time out in Jeddah.

Yet ex-F1 car designer Gary Anderson writing in his column for the Telegraph criticises Lewis suggesting he has a limited understanding of what it takes for the engineers to produce a competitive car in this new ground effect era.

“After the race Hamilton said that big changes need to be made to the car,” observed Anderson. “He mentioned that the other teams around them still have different concepts, but Hamilton is talking about what you can see.

“The critical parts on these cars is the underfloor and Hamilton does not know what the other teams are doing there. What you can see is not necessarily what makes the car work.”

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Lewis criticised for failing to understand new F1 cars

Of course Sergio Perez famously put his car into the wall turn 1 at last year’s Monaco Grand Prix and the sky scraper cranes employed at the famous old track, hoisted the RB19 high into the air allowing thousands of photographs to be taken of the underfloor of the car.

The problem is, Adrian Newey and Red Bull went for revolution rather than evolution of the RB19, so this year’s car may well have completely different hidden solutions to the downforce being created underneath the car.

Anderson persists sating: “He [Lewis] seems to be of the frame of mind that if Mercedes make their car look like a Red Bull it will go as fast as one – it will not. The W15 needs a lot more work than the visual concept but the worry is that they still do not understand what a ground-effect car needs.

“The fact that again, as in 2022, both drivers have diverged in their set-ups as the weekend [in Jeddah] went on is not a good sign.”

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Mercedes looking for “magic bullet”

Hamilton opted for a high downforce setup in practice three in Saudi, while Russell persisted with the setup the team strategists believed would be best for qualifying and the race. Having put a best time in that session which was 0.3 seconds slower than his team mate, Lewis reverted to the Russell setup for qualifying that afternoon.

Yet he barely made it into Q3 as rookie oil Bearman with les than an hours experience of driving the 2024 Ferrari almost knocked out the seven times champion with a time just 0.036 seconds slower than Lewis.

Gary Anderson believes: “Hamilton has gone back to his 2022 approach of trying to find the magic bullet with set-up that he hopes will find half a second out of nowhere.

“They are clearly still experimenting with their car but I do not think the solution – and a performance leap from nowhere – is in the car any more.”

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“They are still fooling themselves”

George Russell after the Jeddah chequered flag talked of how Mercedes need to find out why they start a weekend looking good, but slowly fall away as the on track sessions progressThis is something Anderson claims is proof of a team “still fooling themselves.”

He explained: “Two races in and their performances suggest they are still suffering from an inability to overcome its limitations. It feels like a repeat of 2022 and 2023.

“The team need to be realistic about their car and must wake up to the reality that they have a problem.

“In some ways they are still fooling themselves and this goes down to how they approach the weekend. Throughout Bahrain and Saudi Arabia they have looked competitive in the early practice sessions before dropping back.”

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Mercedes using “deceptive confidence boost”

The likely reason for this is Mercedes are running their cars light in the early practice sessions, possibly to give their drivers confidence. But as their rivals push ever harder as the weekend progresses, the former world champions merely fall back to their true position.

The sad reality is Mercedes pace in Jeddah saw them only the fifth fastest car on the grid. Using the same tyre strategy George Russell finished 40 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen. Hamilton tried a different strategy but could no better than P9.

“Neither strategy worked for them,” says Anderson. “That is nearly a second a lap in race trim and they were also nearly a second off [Verstappen] over one lap in qualifying too.

“They must go back to doing their homework between races in a more effective way than just running their car light on fuel and initially looking and feeling in a good place.

“They will not learn anything this way, it is just a deceptive and short-lived confidence boost.”

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McLaren show they way

At the high speed street circuit in Saudi, the bouncing which blighted Mercedes in 2022/23 returned with avengeance. 

“We’ve tried every set-up change and we can’t get rid of it. It’s difficult to explain it,” Hamilton explained.“We had some bouncing in Bahrain but nowhere near as intense as here.”

Ground effect was used in F1 back in the early 1980’s and footage of the cars show drivers sat almost on the font axle and the cars bouncing. Hamilton does not like the forward seat position of the new breed of cars, but Mercedes should have expected some level of bouncing had they bothered to watch some historic clips.

Other cars bounce too, with Lando Norris McLaren making noticeable scrapping noises from the on board as he held off Lewis Hamilton for lap after lap. Yet Mercedes appeared focused on the bouncing more than the rest.

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Poor underfloor design

“Bouncing blighted Mercedes in 2022 and stopping that is all about managing the underfloor of the car aerodynamically,” comments Anderson.

“As the car goes faster the load increases and the car gets closer to the ground. The main problem here is that Mercedes do not have a philosophy to get the car to work other than lowering the car into the ground – but this brings about the bouncing.

“They simply do not have the right aerodynamic approach to getting the underfloor to work,” the ex-Stuart, Jordon and Jaguar car designer says.

“They are a long way short of Red Bull and even McLaren. McLaren’s car is as close to the ground as any other but it skims across the track rather than banging into it which means they get more consistent and usable downforce.”

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Mercedes need better front end grip

Hamilton experienced a wicked snap of the car in Jeddah practice 2, which is why he was “spooked” into running the high downforce wing next time on track. Yet Anderson believes the talk of Mercedes ridding themselves of the “spiteful rear end” has failed. 

“Mercedes need to come up with a solution to achieve front-end grip in the slower corners without sacrificing the rear-end grip in the fast corners,” Gary concludes.

“Every comment they make suggests that they do not have this, that the car is constantly on a knife edge balance-wise.”

Last season McLaren demonstrated it was possible to change the car significantly mid season, as their car from Austria onwards was second quickest only to Red Bull Racing.

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No change expected in next 3 races

“McLaren showed that a big jump is possible. They started that season poorly but knew exactly what they needed to fix and how.”

Yet Anderson believes the former world champion F1 team are a long way from solving their difficulties and he “would not expect much to change for them in Australia, Japan or China.”

in the high speed turn 7 at the Jedday circuit, data shows Mercedes were both slowest of all entering the corner and also at the apex, clearly not a good sign for similar sections of the upcoming Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Hamilton once the king of the hot lap has now failed to out qualify his team mate Russell in the last four outings and as the season progresses poorly, ex-Red Bull driver David Coulthard believes Lewis is “not putting the effort in” given he is leaving for Ferrari next year.

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In the fast-moving and competitive world of Formula 1, the Red Bull Racing team is embroiled in a controversy which goes beyond the race track. At the heart of the dispute is an employee’s complaint against team principal Christian Horner, a matter that has sparked widespread debate and disillusionment among observers and insiders alike.

Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull Racing, has found himself at the centre of a major investigation into allegations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ with an employee. The internal investigation was launched after allegations were made by a team member, putting Horner under the microscope and casting a shadow over his leadership of one of Formula One’s most successful teams…. READ MORE