by VALERIO BARRETTA
Mercedes, Melbourne an important test
In the first two rounds of the 2024 World Championship the new Mercedes W15 performed poorly feeling in fast corners, being much more comfortable in the slower sectors. Read from this point of view, the Melbourne event arrives at the wrong time, also because after Australia the much more challenging Suzuka circuit will arrive.
Andy Shovlin – head of Mercedes track operations – admitted that the Brackley team will conduct as many experiments as they can in free practice in Melbourne in order to have a clearer idea of the car's behavior on the fastest sections. Toto Wolff hopes that the new ideas brought to the track by Mercedes will work and give a wake-up call to a team that risks going bankrupt for the third consecutive year.
Wolff's words
“From Jeddah we worked hard to capitalize on the lessons learned from the first two races. It's encouraging to see the W15's potential, but there are also clear areas for improvement. We appeared competitive in the low and medium speed corners, but high speed has been a weak point so far“, these are the words of the Austrian to Mercedes channels. “We worked hard to understand why our performance fell short of our expectations. Improving this aspect is an important goal. Hopefully we can make some progress for Melbourne, this work will guide our development in the weeks to come. It's great to feel the energy and determination flowing through the factories as we work to unlock the car's potential“.
“We left points on the table in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. We started each weekend in a strong way, carrying out our usual test programmes, but we were unable to keep our initial promises“, he concluded. “With the chasing pack so close, it is vital that we maximize the car's potential each weekend. Albert Park gives us another opportunity to show what we can do. It's a great circuit in a great city, with a passionate and vocal fan base, and we can't wait to return“.
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