Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes the team’s inconsistent performance throughout the 2024 Formula 1 season was due to them falling behind in development while trying to recover from a difficult beginning.
The Brackley-based team decided on a completely fresh approach with its W15 concept, choosing a more traditional sidepod arrangement and a rear suspension assembly activated by pushrods.
It took time for the team to thoroughly assess the strengths of their new car before expanding on the ideas behind it, which Shovlin believed put them at a disadvantage compared to the other teams in the season’s development schedule.
He asserts that Mercedes’ updates typically lagged behind its top-four competitors, enabling it to remain competitive for a couple of rounds before being surpassed as the other teams introduced new components.
Shovlin explained, “I believe the main challenge is development. When we compare our software updates to our core competitors, our comprehensive package was introduced a couple of tournaments later.”
But if we’d brought it earlier, it would be a smaller package. In fact, on average, over a season, we’ve been too slow when it comes to delivering updates. We did have a few races where we were competitive, but the teams were trying to push past us, release their own improvements, and then they took the lead.
That’s definitely the primary mechanism. I believe the beginning of the season was subpar. The car wasn’t well-balanced, wasn’t performing across a wide range of tracks.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15.
No text is provided to paraphrase.
We were able to resolve those issues during the first seven or so rounds, and then I believe we’ve simply been in a typical development cycle for the rest of the season.
Shovlin stated that one of the team’s objectives for its 2025 vehicle is to minimize the amount of over-heating at the rear axle, as he felt that this was an area in which Mercedes was trailing behind its leading competitors.
Although the W15 was able to get its tyres up to operating temperature more easily in cold conditions, this caused them to degrade more quickly at warmer circuits.
He also pointed out that Mercedes’ difficulties in adapting its car to perform well across a range of ride heights were a crucial aspect of its considerations, as the W15 often struggled to handle on tracks with rough surfaces.
“And that’s probably reduced especially famously at tracks like Singapore,” Shovlin said.
We are examining ways to mitigate temperature in the rear tires. The objectives we’re focusing on are twofold: first, is it feasible to lower the temperature entering the tires, and second, is it possible to remove excess heat from the tires more efficiently.
That’s clearly an area where, on a Sunday, we had a significant gap up front in some of those races. And definitely an area of focus for next year.
It’s absolutely true that on bumpier tracks we tend to feel the effects more often. Analyzing how high our riders go, I think we’re not significantly different from others, but the way we ride has been a key area of attention for us with these new rules.
In general, we’ve made progress. However, the essence of development in Formula 1 is solving problems, and doing so more efficiently than your competitors will get you to the front.
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