Mercedes Head of Trackside Engineering Andrew Shovlin has explained why Lewis Hamilton struggled throughout the 2024 Formula 1 campaign with the W15 machine.
Hamilton’s last season at Mercedes was turbulent, with highs coming at Silverstone and Spa as he returned to victory lane, but many lows reared their ugly heads throughout the season.
Dismal weekends in Brazil and Qatar had Hamilton contemplating his speed and his steadfast determination was suffering as a result.
Pondering Hamilton’s issues, Shovlin took the burden of blame away from the seven-time world champion, saying (via Autosport): “The car hasn’t been quick enough, and that’s been the thing that we’ve been trying to solve.”
One thing that has been clear for all to see from the Mercedes W15, as has been the case with all its ground effect machines since the 2022 rules reset, is that it has a very narrow operating window.
Again, this is something that Hamilton struggled with, as Shovlin explained.
“The car hasn’t been easy to get into a nice balance window, and particularly once you get there, keeping it there has been a challenge,” he said.
Hamilton struggled to find the last tenth or two in qualifying in 2024
One of the most startling issues that Hamilton had in 2024 was qualifying, being outpaced 19 times to five by his team-mate George Russell.
Moreover, in the instances that Hamilton has had speed in qualifying, such as Las Vegas, all the good work has come to nought following mistakes in the crunch-time Q3 top-10 shootout.
Such was Hamilton’s race pace in Vegas, he was able to recover from 10th on the grid to second, but more often than not, a tenth or two behind Russell in qualifying meant two places or more further back on the grid and a hurdle that was too tricky to overcome in race conditions.
“I think you know Lewis has struggled on a single lap,” Shovlin said.
“His race pace has been there throughout the weekend. But it’s just with a close grid, you often start a few places behind your team-mate, and then you’re held up and you can’t show what you can do.
“But the read on Lewis’s race pace has been very good.
“He showed in Las Vegas that if he has a car that works the way he wants, he can fight right back to the front. And we very much saw the old Lewis.
“The issue really for him has just been when you are trying to extract that last tenth or two.
“It’s been difficult in terms of trying to avoid brake locking, trying to avoid snaps on exit. It’s just those issues.
“But the way the team looks at that is that we needed to give Lewis a car more like the one we had in Vegas, where it does suit his style, and he can do his best work with it.”
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