Lewis Hamilton, from Great Britain, piloted the Mercedes AMG F1 W15 car in the Formula 1 World Championship, Stage 4, Grand Prix of Japan, held in Suzuka, Japan, on April 7, 2024.
According to Toto Wolff, head of the Mercedes team, the 2024 Formula 1 car made progress despite a difficult start in the Japanese Grand Prix. The team had to switch Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to hard tires after a collision between Alex Albon and Daniel Ricciardo caused a red flag. However, they were unable to keep up with their competitors and had to make an additional pit stop to finish the race with the medium compound, which is faster but less durable. In the end, Russell managed to overtake McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and finished in seventh place, while Hamilton finished in ninth.
Wolff believes that Mercedes was more competitive than their final positions suggest, considering the time lost in the early stages of the race. He acknowledged the disappointing results in qualifying and the race, seventh and ninth places respectively, but emphasized the progress made in terms of performance and understanding of the car. He mentioned that Suzuka was a challenging track for Mercedes last year, but this time they were closer to the leaders in qualifying. Despite a tough first stint, the team showed competitiveness in the second and third stints of the race. Wolff believes that if they had followed the same strategy as their competitors, the results would have been different. He concluded by stating that, although the current results are not satisfactory, there is room for improvement in the upcoming races.
Wolff recently revealed that Hamilton’s difficulties in Australia two weeks ago were the result of a change in track temperature between practice and qualifying. However, despite the temperature rising to 40 degrees during the race, Wolff denied that this increase was the cause of Mercedes’ struggles in the first stint in Suzuka. He explained that there was only a three-degree difference in track temperature between the first and second stint, and that the team’s poor performance was more due to attempting to extend the pit stop and losing time with the gates open.
Currently, Mercedes is in fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, behind McLaren by 35 points and Ferrari by a significant 86 points. However, Wolff remains optimistic and points to McLaren’s turnaround last season as evidence that Mercedes can also improve. He mentioned that Ferrari and McLaren had performance fluctuations, with Ferrari initially struggling but becoming the second strongest team, and McLaren going from a back-of-the-grid team to a regular podium contender. Wolff believes that similar performance swings can still occur, and although Mercedes may not be able to challenge Ferrari and McLaren at the moment, they have a realistic goal of doing so in the future.
