In a candid post-race debrief following the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, shed light on the issues plaguing the W14, which has left the team struggling to compete with the top three in the 2024 Constructors’ Championship. Despite introducing a major upgrade in Austin, the team’s results in Brazil fell short of expectations, with Lewis Hamilton finishing tenth and George Russell placing fourth.
Shovlin revealed that Mercedes’ Achilles’ heel lies in slow-speed, interconnected corners, where the car’s handling struggles with the complex turning demands. “Where we tend to be weak is in the slow-speed corners, particularly the ones with one corner flowing into another,” Shovlin explained. “This update kit was not expected to solve that; it was simply aimed at lifting the base performance. But there are deeper, fundamental issues we need to address for the W16.”
Aiming for 2025 Success
With three races remaining, Mercedes has shifted focus to data gathering and testing for next year. “The main takeaway is that our cornering weaknesses have not changed; they’re still an issue,” Shovlin noted. “Our focus has shifted to gathering as much information as possible to implement into our 2025 car design.”
The final stretch of the season—a triple header starting with the Las Vegas Grand Prix, followed by Qatar, and finishing in Abu Dhabi—presents unique challenges, offering a blend of track characteristics that Mercedes plans to use as a testing ground for improvements.
“Vegas offers a lot of straight-line speed and low-speed corners, Qatar is faster, and Abu Dhabi is a balanced mix. These tracks will give us a clearer picture of our current gap to the competition,” Shovlin said, adding that Mercedes will study Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari as benchmarks to help set their goals for the winter.
While Mercedes’ hopes for the 2024 championship may be out of reach, their strategic focus on long-term improvement demonstrates the team’s commitment to reestablishing their dominance. With Shovlin and the engineering team hard at work, all eyes are on Mercedes to see if these critical insights will close the performance gap in 2025.
