The fight for third place is hopeless: Mercedes is focusing on next season and using the last races to analyze weaknesses
Mercedes will use the last three races of the 2024 Formula One season to better understand its weaknesses ahead of the new season. The team is satisfied with fourth place in the constructors’ championship behind McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull.
“The big focus for us in these remaining races is to learn everything we can. In the championship, we are at a point where we can no longer challenge the front-runners. It is also very unlikely that we will come under pressure from behind,” says Andrew Shovlin.
The head of Mercedes’ engineering department at the track adds: “Our focus has shifted strongly to learning what we need this year so that we can apply the knowledge next year and fix the problems.”
In the middle of the season, the Silver Arrows experienced a turnaround with victories: George Russell won in Austria, Lewis Hamilton took two victories in Great Britain and Belgium. However, the team was unable to maintain this form until the end of the season.
Problems with setup and balance prevented both drivers from competing for the podium in the rain at Interlagos. With a deficit of 162 points to Red Bull and only three races remaining, Mercedes has come to terms with this and wants to solve its problems in the long term.
“The most important finding is that the corners in which we have weaknesses are still the same. They are the connected, slow corners. That’s where we usually fall behind,“ explains Shovlin.
”At the beginning of the weekend in Brazil, we had already identified the second section of the track, which contains many of these corners, as a possible weak point.”
Despite the difficulties in the rain at Interlagos, Shovlin also points out the advantage of being able to drive the car in wet conditions in order to better prepare for the new season: “In Brazil, it was useful to drive in the rain because we could assess how the car behaves in the wet.”
“There are always a few wet qualifying and race sessions during the year. It was reassuring to see that the pace in these conditions was decent. But we will use all the remaining tracks to evaluate performance and confirm whether the changes planned for 2025 will bring improvements.”
On the specific track characteristics that can be assessed, Shovlin says: “Vegas has a lot of straights and slow corners. Qatar is a faster track, and the season finale in Abu Dhabi is a mix of everything. That will help us gauge how we are doing and who serves as the benchmark.
“Sometimes it’s Red Bull, sometimes McLaren, sometimes Ferrari, but this way we can determine how big the gap is that we need to close over the winter months.”
