Having hoped that its new W15 car would help it make the leap to get within striking distance of Red Bull, its recent struggles in Saudi Arabia have served as a wake-up call about how much more work still needs to be done.
But while the competitive picture did not look too good in Jeddah – as it found itself finishing behind McLaren and Aston Martin – the team feels that its true form is being disguised by one particular problem.
And that is a mysterious characteristic that makes the W15 not perform as it should in high-speed corners – where a combination of bouncing and loss of downforce and grip are costing it a chunk of time to the opposition.
The team feels that this weakness accounts for pretty much all of its deficit – as the car seems to be competitive in other areas of the track.
As Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said in Saudi Arabia: “We are quick everywhere else pretty much. We know that we have a smaller rear wing, we're compensating what we're losing through the corners. But it's just at high speed where we're losing all the lap time.”
Wolff’s remarks seem to be backed by real-world data, as GPS comparisons of the qualifying performance of Mercedes at the last two Saudi Arabian Grands Prix have exposed details of the issue it is facing.
Remarkably, despite the dramatic step forward that the team has been able to make between the W14 and W15, its 2024 challenger has shown itself to be actually slower in high-speed corners.
GPS overlays of the qualifying laps of 2023 and 2024 show that in the run from the high-speed Turn 4 apex through to Turn 8, the W15 car is notably lacking.
Source: Autosport