Mercedes are not on the level of Red Bull or McLaren, insists Shovlin

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin insists that the Brackley-based outfit is still not on the level of the field-leading rival teams McLaren and Red Bull.

Mercedes has endured a difficult start to the 2024 Formula 1, having suffered a sizeable deficit to the field-leading Red Bull.

One of the key objectives for Mercedes was to have a car that worked consistently and performed in line with what the team expected. However, the Brackley-based squad struggled to optimise the car across corner speed ranges which saw it end without a podium in the first eight races of the 2024 F1 season.

However, Mercedes now find themselves on an upward trajectory. An ambitious development route has seen the German-British outfit overcome its issues and return to the sharp end with six successive podiums and three wins in four rounds.

Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director at Mercedes confirmed that the Mercedes W15 still has some weak points, particularly on rear-limited circuits

"The circuits where we suffer the most are the rear-limited ones, especially in situations where it is very hot. If we struggled in Spielberg, in Budapest the gap was smaller.

“This leads us to think we have made a big leap forward in terms of performance. If we then take Silverstone into consideration we were very competitive. I think all the teams are trying to develop their own car.

“If you don't do it even for just a weekend, you're left behind because we're all working at an exhausting pace. Speaking of wind tunnel, we can't predict the step increase too much, we see at most six weeks into the future."

The turning point for Mercedes came when a new front wing was introduced at Monaco, which brought the W15 back to life and allowed the drivers to start achieving results

"The Monaco wing was expected during the season. Since we mounted it on George's car we realized that the car could be improved even more.

“From that moment, on every track there was something new. If we look at the first seasonal races, the car changed its behavior even for minimal variations in track conditions. Once these problems were solved, everything became easier,” Shovlin concluded.