Mercedes endured a tough start to the season when their W15 failed to live up to the pre-season promise they built up.
The team started the year with a clean slate after their winless 2023 season forced them to switch car concepts. While it has yielded better and more consistent results than last year, it took a while before they could keep up with rivals McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari.
George Russell earned their first pole position since Lewis Hamilton at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix at the recent race in Canada and came close to winning the race had it not been for a few errors.
Their car looks in a more competitive state compared to the last two years, fuelled by Mercedes’ recent updates to their front wing that appear to have resolved some of the problems they faced in previous years.
In an interview with The Athletic, Russell lifts the lid on why he thinks Mercedes went from being title juggernauts to midfield stragglers.
George Russell outlines key Mercedes problem
Technical director James Allison outlined the main changes Mercedes have made to their W15 which led to the uptake in performance at recent races.
Russell admitted that the German manufacturer did not expect to see such a leap in lap time in Canada, which led to him matching the pace of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.
“We’ve maybe been too big and bold with our decisions over these last two years,” said Russell.
“We’ve almost just wound it in slightly with this last set of upgrades. On the simulator, it’s really performing well. I didn’t believe it at the start ahead of Montreal because the gains felt too big — and then in Montreal, we were flying.”
Mercedes identify crucial areas of performance
The main area of concern for the W15 was its inconsistency across the high and low-speed corners, with the car often visibly looking like a handful for both drivers.
This imbalance resulted in the car having either too much understeer or too much oversteer, which affected the confidence of Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Mercedes introduced a new front wing at Monaco aimed at unlocking an aerodynamic balance improvement, and the gains in performance were visible from the offset at Montreal and most recently Spain.
The team hopes it can continue this trajectory and pile further pressure on Red Bull, who are left scrambling to preserve their advantage by fast-tracking updates to upcoming races.
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