The once dream team of Mercedes and their star Formula One driver, Lewis Hamilton, is drawing slowly to a conclusion as the seven times world champion is heading for Maranello next year. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, the British driver has made his feelings clear about the team’s latest challenger as the W15 has continues the tradition of being difficult to drive as was evident in its recent predecessors.

Mercedes F1 weekends this season have followed the same predictable pattern. The car appears to perform relatively well in first practice then fades away as the track sessions evolve. Hamilton has been out qualified by his team mate at three of the four completed rounds and his highest starting position is a lowly P7 last time out in Japan.

 

 

 

Hamilton says ‘no progress made’

Lewis gives the impression that the W15 is not much better than either the W13 or the W14 stating after the race in Jeddah: “It’s frustrating for sure to be three years in a row in almost the same position.”

Mercedes have appeared to be at a loss to know how best to set up their car as each weekend progresses with Lewis Hamilton often making big changes in practice three when it should be time for fine tuning.

Last time out at the Japanese Grand, a disconsolate Hamilton trailed home in P9 called out the team for making poor decisions on their tyre choice. Unlike those around them, Mercedes decided the hard tyre was the preferred compound for the race saving two new sets for each of their drivers.

Meanwhile the other front running teams opted for the medium tyre as their workhorse in the Grand Prix, something Hamilton questioned when asked in the media pen.

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Mercedes tyre choices questionable

“There were two really terrible [sets of] hard tyres to run through. It was a real challenge today,” he said. “I had huge understeer for the first stint and couldn’t turn the car. The hard tyre was pretty bad and the medium was much better. In hindsight, we should have kept two medium tyres, but in general the car was pretty bad today.”

Asked after the race if the car had not been what he had hoped for, Hamilton responded: “The car is never what I hoped it would be. It’s never what we hoped it would be.”

Team mate George Russell was more positive pointing out how close the field is this year in terms of one lap pace which makes qualifying all the more important. 

“We know it’s very tight out there at the moment, everyone behind the Red Bulls,” he commented. “We didn’t have a great day yesterday and ultimately paid the price today, and you’ve seen that, I think, two of the four races now, one, two-tenths between six cars on the grid.

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Russell more upbeat

“If you qualify at the front of that pack, you’ll probably be finishing at the front of that pack. It’s quite cool that the fight is like that, it’s a shame it’s not for the win. But equally we know these last three circuits haven’t really suited the strengths of our car. So we’ll reassess next week in China.”

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the first since 2019, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is optimistic.

“We are looking forward to racing in Shanghai for the first time in five years and bringing F1 back to the Chinese fans. With a sell-out crowd expected, I am sure it will be a fantastic event.”

“It will be an interesting weekend on track. With new cars, new tyres, and changes to the track surface since we last raced in China, there will be plenty of unknowns. We have the first Sprint weekend of the year too and that brings its own challenges.”

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Wolff contradicts Hamilton saying “solid progress”

In an effort to give the teams more opportunity to dial in their cars at this years Sprint weekends, Formula One has modified its parc ferme rules which restrict setup changes being made on the cars. Previously, the cars entered parc ferme after practice one on Friday meaning the pecking order for the weekend became locked in.

For 2024 there will be a parc ferme for Sprint Qualifying and the shorter race event. Then the teams can change the cars’ setup before Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday afternoon when parc ferme will again be applied.

“The changes to the format, including a second parc fermé, will be an improvement to the rhythm of the weekend – and the single hour of practice still puts pressure on to make correct decisions with imperfect information. We are looking forward to that test, though,” said Wolff.

With reference to Hamilton’s complaints about the last time out in Japan, Toto contradicts his driver’s bleak outlook stating: “The headline results didn’t necessarily show it, but we made solid progress with our car in Japan. We are looking forward to building on that this weekend.”

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“Racing for a podium” says Toto

Further, Wolff rejected the notion from Lewis that the team had made the wrong tyre choice, instead blaming an anomaly during the first stint proper.

“The second and third stints were super quick,” said Toto. “We would have been racing for a podium, but for an atrocious first stint. We need to find out what it was.”

Carlos Sainz who Hamilton will replace at Ferrari next year believes that China was a poor choice for an F1 Sprint weekend. “I think its not a good choice to put the Sprint [there] after four of five years of absence,” he said.

This will be the first time the new generation of ground effect F1 cars take to the track in Shanghai which has been resurfaced since 2019. Ferrari will be looking for another strong weekend particularly given the characteristics of the track layout make it front end limited, something which suits SF-24, currently leading the chase to hunt down Red Bull Racing.

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