Mercedes: Development lag behind fluctuating 2024 F1 form

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes the team's fluctuating form over the 2024 Formula 1 season was a result of it being pegged back in development in trying to recover from a tough start.

The Brackley-based squad opted for an entirely new approach with its W15 concept, opting for a more conventional sidepod solution and pushrod-activated rear suspension assembly.

It took time for the team to fully suss out the merits of its new car before it could flesh the concepts on it out further, which Shovlin reckoned set it back against the other teams in the season's development cycle.

He says Mercedes' upgrades were usually out of sync with those of its top-four rivals, allowing it to remain more competitive for a couple of rounds before cycling behind in the pecking order once the other teams had introduced new parts.

"I think the big one is development. And if you look at when we brought our updates compared to our main competitors, we were often bringing our big package a couple of races later," Shovlin explained.

"But if we brought it earlier, it would be a smaller package. So the fact is, on average, over a season, we've not been quick enough when we deliver an update, we had a few races where we were competitive, the teams were trying to beat them, bring theirs, and they moved back ahead.

"That's definitely the main mechanism. I think the start of the season was poor. The car wasn't well balanced, wasn't working across a range of tracks.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

"We got on top of those issues over the first seven or so races. And then I think we've just been in a normal development race over the remainder of the year."

Shovlin added that one of the team's goals for its 2025 car is to reduce the amount of tyre overheating at the rear axle, as he felt that this was an area where Mercedes paled versus its front-running rivals.

Although the W15 was able to get its tyres up to temperature more easily than others in colder conditions, this led to earlier thermal degradation at warmer circuits.

He also noted that Mercedes' struggles to get on top of optimising its car around a given ride height was also part of its considerations, as the W15 tended to struggle on bumpier circuits.

"Rear overheating, that's an area where I don't think we are as good as McLaren, Red Bull or Ferrari, and that's probably affected as most recently at tracks like Singapore," Shovlin added.

"So we're looking at what we can do to get temperature out of the rear tyres - and any work in that area is twofold: one is can we put less temperature in? And the other one is, can we take more temperature out?

"But that's clearly an area where, on a Sunday, we had a big gap to the front in some of those races. And definitely an area of focus for next year.

"It's very fair to say on those [bumpier] tracks, we do suffer more often. You can do analysis on how high people are running, and I don't think we're wildly different to anyone else, but ride is an area that we've been focusing on with these regulations.

"In general, we've made progress. But the whole thing of development in Formula 1 is fixing problems, and can you fix them quicker than your competitors. And that's how you get to the front."