F1 | Old problems slow down the W15, Allison: “There's a lack of balance”

If Ferrari and McLaren have something to smile about looking back at this start to the championship, the situation at Mercedes is much more complex, due to a W15 that has so far provided very little satisfaction. The new single-seater was not born under a “lucky star”, an aspect of which the German team is now well aware, which is why it hopes to reverse the trend already from Miami with the first substantial package of technical innovations.

On several occasions the drivers had the feeling of being at the limit, as if on a razor's edge in managing the single-seater, given that the car shows certain problems already seen in the past, including a reduced operating window that leaves little margin on the set-up . Added to this is the fact that the W15 does not make qualifying one of its great strengths, which is why the drivers have repeatedly struggled with being the fifth force on the flying lap, then having to start from the back of the grid.

While on the one hand the team hopes that the package of updates planned for the next stop in Miami will improve its performance, on the other it is clear that this will not be enough to eliminate those defects that have been present for some time now. For this reason, changes are being studied that will arrive during the season, specifically aimed at improving the handling of the car.

“We have upgrade packages coming for the car, but then we will also have components that we hope will correct the underlying balance problem that is giving us trouble,” said James Allison, looking to the future, not just the next round in Miami.

Words that come after a very difficult weekend in China, which concluded with a podium by Lewis Hamilton in the sprint, but also with the awareness that in the race Mercedes was the fifth force, also behind Aston Martin, which paid only an unfavorable strategy due to lack of tires. A lack of competitiveness which, clearly, does not please Mercedes: “As painful as it is to talk in this way after a weekend like the one in China, we just have to remember that there will be races in the future in which we will have managed to make those improvements, in where we will be at the forefront again and where we will progress, and speaking at that time will be a pleasure again.”

If you went back three weeks, Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren had pretty definite ideas about what the roles in Shanghai might be. The Maranello and Brackley teams looked at the Chinese weekend with more positivity than that of Suzuka, unlike McLaren, who were more negative about the MCL38's possibilities. However, the track told a different reality, with the W15 far from the performance that the engineers expected, so much so that it even placed it behind Aston Martin.

There are various aspects that weigh on this negative performance and it is interesting to note how the asphalt, a great unknown of the last round which misled several teams, as well as certain track conditions, including low temperatures, favored certain teams, penalizing but others. It is no mystery that in recent years Mercedes has designed cars that focus heavily on the front end, so much so that the drivers themselves, especially Hamilton, have complained about the poor stability of the rear.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

It was thought that this problem had been resolved during the 2024 season with targeted interventions, but from the first appointments it clearly emerged that, despite the improvements, the old problems with the rear axle were still present. The interesting aspect is how the long-distance duel developed with McLaren, who often struggles with the precision of the front in very slow corners, so much so that on the eve of the race he thought he would have more difficulty. However, the Woking team managed to make other sections of the track its strong point, even overtaking Ferrari.

“All year we've had a limited front car, especially in the low-speed corners, and in China it was really amplified,” Allison explained, trying to illustrate why such a disappointing weekend for Mercedes.

“Once the front tires struggle to turn this means that the drivers have to wait an eternity to start accelerating at the exit of the corner, a lot of lap time is lost. In the end what happens is that to get the car to turn into the corner the drivers have to use the accelerator to move the rear end and this kills the rear tires, which ends up causing the rear end to overheat,” added the technical director.

The underlying problem is that, if McLaren managed to make a difference in the fast sections of the second sector, also keeping up with Ferrari, Mercedes was unable to do the same. It is no mystery that the W15 lacks load in the fastest sections, where the differences in terms of track-simulator correlations emerge even more clearly, which is why certain factors have been added one on top of the other, further compromising the situation.

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“It is not at all pleasant to come out of a weekend where, even if executed competently and in which the drivers drove well, the car is not where it should be in terms of competitiveness. Of course, the challenge we will face in the next races is that of trying to improve both the set-up of the car and the parts we bring to improve the single-seater.”

If the low temperatures helped McLaren in managing the rear, a very different, much hotter race is expected for Miami, and an eye goes to Mercedes. When temperatures reach such high peaks, the US stage generally tends to put a lot of stress on the rear: Miami presents a great variety of corners, both fast and slow, which is why it will be interesting to understand how the Brackley team will adapt to these situations. Furthermore, previously Allison himself had not hidden how the W15 struggled with rather high temperatures which put the tires on edge.

“We go from China to Miami, a rear limited track and our challenge will be to make sure we do something different to Shanghai. And another sprint race weekend awaits us. We have certainly learned something from China. We also hope that the updates we will bring to Miami will help us qualify, with the grid very close, because a few cents can make the difference.”

Finally, referring specifically to the sprint, Mercedes is aware that it cannot repeat the same mistakes as China in terms of approach, when it turned the setup around after the sprint to continue the experiments. “We certainly learned over the weekend in China that if you want to be ambitious, you have to be ambitious in the sprint race and then fine-tune the setup for the Sunday race, rather than the other way around.”