F1 | Mercedes without peace: now the problem is the fast corners

Mercedes, here we go again. Having set aside the two-year “size zero” project for the bellies due to the unsuccessful results, the Brackley team has this year embraced a much more conventional project philosophy to try to recover performance and return to fighting on a stable basis for the top positions , but the two races held so far in the 2024 World Championship have told a very different story.

Red Bull has remained the great reference, but if there were no major doubts on this aspect already this winter, with cars still to be presented, the situation behind the Milton Keynes team is different, which makes Mercedes well below expectations .

At the start of the season, Mercedes aspired to be firmly the second force – as indicated by the 2023 Constructors' World Championship – and be the first challenger to Verstappen and co, but instead it found itself as the third force, with Ferrari so far much more convincing especially in the race, on the pace, exactly where last year he had beaten the Red albeit by the skin of his teeth.

But what is the main complication that is making Mercedes' start to the season difficult? The Brackley team seems to have identified the W15's big flaw in the fast corners, an aspect that goes against the data that the team saw during the virtual simulations carried out this winter.

“There is something we don't understand,” said Toto Wolff at the end of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. “We are fast practically everywhere. We know that we have a looser rear wing and that we are compensating for what we lose in corners. But it is precisely at high speed that we lose all the lap time.”

According to Wolff, the problem does not stem from a set-up error, but rather one linked to the design of the single-seater: “I think this is an important problem. There's not much we could have done in fine-tuning the car in Jeddah.”

“Our simulations show us a direction and this is the type of set-up that we then choose, where we put the right rear wing. I believe that we can gain a few tenths if we get the set-up right or not, but there is no enormous corridor of performance. It's more of a fundamental issue: we believe that the speed must be there. We measure the downforce, but we don't find it in the lap time.”

Compared to the past two years, Wolff still seems to be confident. The problem that arose in the first two races of the season can be resolved in a short time thanks to the new single-seater concept adopted this year.

“We've had to find something for two years, and this is the thing that needs to be unlocked. We just have to work. It's not for lack of trying. We've worked hard and now, in the next week, we'll do an in-depth and massive analysis with more data to understand”.

“We will return to Melbourne strong. We are on a mission and I am 100% sure that we will be able to close this performance gap,” concluded the Mercedes team principal.