F1 News
Mercedes still see ways to improve: 'McLaren and Max are ahead of us there'
Entering the 2024 season, Mercedes once again had go through a challenging period. However, during the last few Grands Prix, the German team found a way back to the front of the field, and now won three out of the last four races. The team's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained where his team still need to improve.
George Russell won in Spielberg, Lewis Hamilton won at Silverstone and at Spa (after Russell was disqualified in Belgium because his car was under the minimum weight limit), and in between Hamilton's two victories, the seven-time world champion could also step on the podium at the Hungaroring.
Compared to how the season got underway for the German team, Mercedes have been a factor during the recent weekends. "The team has responded brilliantly to that challenge. We know where we want to get to in terms of performance level," Shovlin said, the team report.
Where can Mercedes still improve
According to Shovlin however, the Hungarian Grand Prix still pointed out a weakness of the W15. "The remaining weaknesses [are] in hot conditions are the rear-limited circuits. We're not as good as the McLarens or Max [Verstappen]. If you look at tracks like Budapest, you'd say we're still putting too much temperature in the rear tyres and there's also just an element that we need to find a bit more base performance," he added, pointing out his team's current rivals.
"We've got good ideas but there's a lot of work to go through between having an idea and actually getting physical parts that you can put on the car and make it go quicker," the engineer concluded.
Mercedes are currently in fourth place in the constructors' championship with 266 points collected in 2024 after 14 Grands Prix weekends have been concluded. Because of their worse start to the season, they are 79 points behind Ferrari, but the Germans also sit confidently in P4, 193 points ahead of Aston Martin.