“We know we have a mountain to climb to fight at the very front. There are no miracles in this sport,” said Merc F1 boss Toto Wolff. Meet the Brackley team’s black and silver new pair of mountain boots, then: the much improved, massively upgraded W15. A car that hopes to cure all the ‘stinging’ lessons from last year's sometimes vindictive W14.
Merc acknowledged last year’s car had a limited architecture, and so for 2024 have fitted a completely new chassis in a bid to cure the rear-axle unpredictability that so afflicted Hamilton and Russell. There’s a new gearbox casing too, along with ‘housekeeping’ in the form of upgraded aero—a bid to find more downforce and less drag—improving the DRS effect and even the team’s pit stop performance.
OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:
foodpanda CEO Dan Marogy on his life in PH and how he rediscovered his love for riding
Here’s how eating Shakey’s pizza and Peri-Peri chicken can help you win a BMW X-vehicle
“As the saying goes: when it stings, it sticks,” said Wolff. “I believe the previous two years were necessary for us to readjust, recalibrate, and reinvent ourselves in certain areas. That root-and-branch approach is never easy. But we’ve made progress and look forward to taking the next step with the W15. It won’t be a linear path, but when we stumble, we will get back up and keep climbing.”
Lewis Hamilton—who of course enters his last season as a Mercedes F1 driver before moving to Ferrari—said: “If you’re not comfortable with the car, you’re not able to extract the maximum performance. A more stable, more predictable car will enable us to extract the potential from not only the car, but ourselves as drivers."
“We made progress with some of the nastier characteristics of the W14 throughout last year,” his teammate George Russell added. “But we still had a narrow operating window and, once we were outside of that, the car was difficult to drive. If we can continue to widen the operating window of the car, that will provide confidence for us as drivers and from there, lap time is easier to find.”
Enough lap time to give either a fighting chance against the Red Bulls? Only time—and a few pre-season tests—will tell. “There are no crystal balls in this sport,” Wolff added. “But we will at least know the gap we are aiming to close down. Our ambition is strong and we’re ready to get going.”
More photos of the Mercedes-AMG W15:
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
