Mercedes reveal their heavily-revamped 2024 F1 challenger

On the same day as McLaren, Mercedes have also shown off their 2024 F1 car with which the team wants to lift its performance following two difficult F1 campaigns.

Mercedes stated that their 2024 F1 car, the W15 builds on the learnings from the previous two seasons and they hope that the new car will enable the team to make bigger alterations that are not possible during the season.

These changes include a new chassis, and new gearbox casing. Aerodynamically, as ever, the focus has been on efficiency, the endless quest for finding more downforce with less drag and delivering it to the tack in a manner that complements the function of the suspension and tyres.

A big focus has been on improving the previous car’s unpredictable rear axle. The team have worked hard to ensure that both axles, but particularly the rear axle, retain better control of the tyre than on the W14. There’s also been some housekeeping on areas in which we had room for improvement, including the DRS effect, and pit stop performance.

However, it is the underside of the car where the main differentiating factors lie. James Allison said: “With this current generation of cars, so much of the performance comes from how the floor interacts with the road. Whether or not a car is effective is down to how well that floor is permitted to behave aerodynamically.

Dialling out the inconsistent performance of the W14 and its sometimes spiteful rear-end has been a key technical focus. Both George and Lewis are clear on the rewards that could bring if the team has been able to do so.

“We know we have a mountain to climb to fight at the very front. There are no miracles in this sport,” Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, commented. “But our ambition and determination are strong. Since charting this new course, development has progressed well. We had several items on our priority list for this car. We will soon see if we’ve made the step we’ve aimed for.”

Behind-the-wheel of the W15 will be race drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

“We’ve learnt and grown as a team over the past two seasons,” George commented. “It’s not been plain sailing, but I truly believe the journey we’ve been on will make us stronger in the long run. The whole team has been working incredibly hard and we hope to have made a step with the W15,” he continued.

“The learnings of the past two years have helped us find our direction,” Lewis added. “It’s enabled us to find our north star. It’s still going to be a work in progress, but we will face whatever challenges present themselves with our heads up, with open minds, and work through diligently.”

Dialling out the inconsistent performance of the W14 and its sometimes spiteful rear-end has been a key technical focus. Both George and Lewis are clear on the rewards that could bring if the team has been able to do so.

Lewis explained: “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. 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 a drivers and from there, lap time is easier to find,” George added.