What are the confirmed changes in Mercedes W15 to enhance Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s performances?

In recent years, Mercedes has faced significant challenges in narrowing the gap to the dominant force on the Formula 1 grid, Red Bull. Lewis Hamilton has openly acknowledged their struggles in the previous season, pointing to the shortcomings of their W14 as a major factor in their decline.

However, the entire team started working progressively towards victory for the 2024 season with an upgraded version of W14. Recently, some of the major changes to the new W15 vehicle have also been fully unveiled for spectators to heighten their anticipation for the upcoming season.

What are the major upgrades in Mercedes W15?

After a very disheartening statement made by Lewis Hamilton at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, F1 fans had almost assumed that Mercedes would no longer be able to close the huge gap between them and Red Bull. However, a ray of hope has arisen for the team with major upgrades to the 15 introduced, and since then, the team has been working to improve their performance further on the grid.

After leaving the position as the team engineer in 2021, James Allison has returned to lead the entire team for a more successful car in the upcoming season. Mercedes has promised their fans successive changes for the car, starting from chassis to narrow cockpit.

Firstly, the team has decided to change the gearbox of the W15 to fuse it with their upcoming design for 2024. Now that Mercedes is deciding to alter the car’s gearbox, there is a high possibility that they will apply different aerodynamic adjustments to that section of the car.

Mercedes has also made several drastic changes, such as a new chassis, new sidepods to compliment the W15 vehicle and a new front and rare suspension as well. When asked about elaborating on the changes introduced to the machinery, Allison replied, “ We have lots of assets. The team itself with very strong engineers , an operation that would be an envy to many, not withstanding a few mistakes that we made here and there in the year. And a driver lineup that all the teams would look up with an envious eye.”

What issues did Mercedes drivers face with W14?

Last season, the W14 has been having ongoing trouble adapting to the race tracks. As a result, Mercedes has been way behind the other teams on the grid. The team principal, Toto Wolff, has mentioned that the car was suffering from a “strange loss of downforce” at the front axle.

Initially, the problems started arising at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with the car facing numerous issues such as a hydraulic failure and difficulty adapting to the track condition. Since then, Mercedes has tried several ways to improve the condition of their machinery, but there were still no improvements visible in their performances in the latter half of the season.

Do you think the W15 will be the winning car in 2024 Let us know in the comment section below.