Mercedes have had one of the worst starts to the 2024 Season. From being one of the most prominent teams in the history of Formula 1 until 2021, to being degraded to a mere average team, Mercedes in recent times has had a record of subpar performance.
Although team principal Toto Wolff seems slightly optimistic about the results they’re going to produce in time to come ahead of this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola. He has cautioned that it will take them “several races” to showcase their improvement from the lessons they’ve learned so far in 2024.
Mercedes is struggling to put up a fight in the F1 Construction Championship
With a W15 car that lacks downforce and has some unfavorable handling characteristics built-in, Mercedes has struggled to compete with teams like Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. Because of this, the Mercedes has proven difficult to configure and utilize to its fullest extent. Mercedes is now in fourth place in the F1 Constructors’ Championship after a terrible start to the season.
Even though Mercedes has “more updates” for this weekend’s race in Imola, Wolff anticipates that the team won’t see a significant improvement yet.
“We are now one-quarter of the way through the season,” Wolff said. “The first six races have not been straightforward, but we have clearly understood where to improve and shaped a clear path forward to tackle that.”
Even though its performance problems on several circuits, including Jeddah, Melbourne, and Suzuka, were distinct from one another, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin claims the company has identified the underlying patterns that have pointed it in the right path for changes.
Toto Wolff said: “There’s a thread of work that is going on at the moment, along with the fact that we’ve just got to bring performance.” According to Toto, it will take them several races before they see the “bear fruit.” Everyone is working very hard to bring them [results] as soon as possible, until then, Mercedes is focusing on maximizing their existing package.
Mercedes must bring the right upgrades for better performance in the upcoming races
Mercedes must make important judgments on their championship strategy as the season goes on. Because there is no possibility of winning the titles this year, they should consider the advantages of devoting resources to the current season. Giving up on more modifications on the current car may allow them to catch up to Red Bull.
“We are bringing some more updates to Imola and hopefully they push us in the right direction,” informed Wolff. The remainder of Mercedes’ first official improvement package for 2024 will be shown this weekend at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, following the introduction of a floor upgrade for Miami.
Following consecutive sprint weekends, Imola will return to the customary F1 schedule of three practice sessions. Wolff is happy to see the return to a regular timetable in 2024, considering Mercedes’s overall lack of consistency. “After two Sprints in a row, we now go back to the more usual weekend format. It affords us more time to refine the set-up, but Imola is still a demanding circuit that challenges both the car and the driver,” Toto added.
While describing the Imola Circuit, Wolff said, there are several fast and flowing sections, but some low-speed corners and tricky and bumpy surfaces. It is narrow and overtaking is difficult. Overall it will be a tough challenge for the drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell and the team is looking forward to the race, as it will help them with better evaluation, and provide them with the required data to upgrade their machinery further.