Mercedes continues to battle with the elusive challenge of making their W15 car work consistently, particularly when it comes to managing tire performance—a problem that has plagued them throughout the 2024 season. Team Principal Toto Wolff recently pointed out these persistent issues, which have led to wildly inconsistent results for the team.
At the Singapore Grand Prix, seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton qualified third, while teammate George Russell started fourth. However, their race pace didn’t match their qualifying performance. Hamilton slipped back to sixth due to a flawed strategy, and Russell finished fourth, struggling to get the best out of the tires once again.
In a reflective video on Mercedes’ YouTube channel, the team’s Chief Technical Officer James Allison addressed the team’s ongoing struggles and laid out plans for improvements. “We will be trying to figure out how to mitigate what ailed us this weekend, how to make the tires run better on these overheating circuits,” Allison explained. “We’re also doing quite a lot of work to bring our last upgrade of the season together.”
Allison revealed that Mercedes has a significant upgrade planned for the Austin Grand Prix, which the team hopes will turn their fortunes around. “We’ve got quite a substantial set of new clothes for the car coming for Austin that we hope will give us a decent weekend there,” he said.
Driver Frustration with the W15’s Inconsistency
Allison acknowledged the frustration felt by both Hamilton and Russell, who have struggled to find consistency in the car’s performance across different race conditions. “Like the rest of us, they’re feeling fed up that the car was not particularly competitive in race trim,” Allison noted. “It was okay in qualifying but not in race trim.”
He pointed to the W15’s recurring issue: the car’s inability to maintain tire performance on tracks where temperature management is crucial. “We suffered again from something that has been problematic for us: on softer rubber at tracks where tire temperature is at a premium, we lose relative competitiveness,” Allison explained. “Singapore is at the extreme end of that experience, and it was quite a difficult thing for them to manage.”
Heat Takes a Toll on Hamilton and Russell
In addition to the car’s performance woes, the grueling conditions in Singapore—30 degrees air temperature and 70% humidity—pushed both drivers to their physical limits. Hamilton and Russell were visibly exhausted post-race and did not participate in media duties due to the toll the conditions had taken on them. “They feel a lot better now from the heat part of it; cold ice baths and hydration help them bounce back,” Allison said. “But the more significant issue is the car’s pace, and that hurt lingers a little longer.”
With the next race in Austin looming, Mercedes’ focus is on finding solutions that will allow their drivers to compete at the front consistently. The upcoming upgrades could be a turning point, but the team knows that without solving their underlying tire performance issues, the W15’s potential will remain unfulfilled.
