Mercedes drop F1 BOMBSHELL ahead of Brazilian Grand Prix

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton look glum as they walk through the paddock — Photo: © IMAGO

Mercedes

Mercedes drop F1 BOMBSHELL ahead of Brazilian Grand Prix

Mercedes are looking to compete closer to the front in 2025

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 31 October 2024 20:56 Updated: 21:55

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has dropped a bombshell regarding Mercedes' upgrades between now and the end of the season.

The team have struggled at the last couple of events, with car problems and big crashes plaguing drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

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Russell's huge crash during practice at the Mexican GP led to the Brit using a Silverstone-spec floor for the rest of the weekend, while his team-mate had an updated version.

Despite this, the performance of the two cars appeared to be very similar, with Russell clearly benefitting from less drag down the main straight at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez during the pair's battle in the race.

Blame was pinned on car problems for Hamilton's spin at the US GP too, a spin which ended the seven-time world champion's involvement in that race.

Lewis Hamilton spun out of the race in Austin

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The varying levels of performance, and seemingly sporadic car problems, have left Mercedes scratching their heads all season long.

The team managed to claim three victories in a four-race spell earlier in the season, including Hamilton's emotional victory at the British GP.

However, performance has dropped off a cliff since then, and the team are languishing in fourth in the constructors' championship.

Now, Shovlin has confirmed that the Brackley-based outfit will be switching their full focus to 2025, when 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli joins the team, with no new major upgrades planned for the W15 between now and the end of the season.

"It is certainly a good opportunity for us to do a bit more experimentation in the race weekends, but the key thing for us is making sure we have done the important bits of learning ahead of the 2025 season," the Brit told Mercedes' Mexican GP debrief.

"We are not bringing any more major updates to the car, it might be that we have some test items, some small bits of bodywork that we are looking at but again this would be very much in the context of learning for the future.

"There will be lots of opportunity to do set up work, lots of opportunity to use the two cars to compare different approaches and hopefully over the next few [races] we can just add to the learning that we have already made during this season."

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes George Russell Brazilian Grand Prix US GP Andrew Shovlin