Why Mercedes have started F1 2024 season SLOWLY

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Saudi Arabia, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News

Why Mercedes have started F1 2024 season SLOWLY

Sky Sports F1 pundit gets to the root of Mercedes' issues at the start of the 2024 season.

Originally written by Sheona Mountford. This version is a translation.

Friday 15 March 2024 04:00

Sky Sports pundit David Croft has revealed why he believes Mercedes have struggled across the first two races of the F1 season.

After a period of seven years of dominance at the top of the sport, they have tailed off after a new era of technical regulations.

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However, since the new regulations they have slipped behind their rivals, currently below McLaren in the 2024 constructors championship.

Their most recent race win was with George Russell at the Brazilian GP in 2022, and Lewis Hamilton, who leaves for Ferrari in 2025, has not won a race since the 2021 Saudi GP.

Mercedes’ cooling issues

“They went wrong to the extent of about four tenths of a second per lap and they had these big cooling issues.

“George and Lewis were having to lift and coast and by doing that they were cooling their tyres down as well and it was a knock-on effect.

“Mercedes are a better package than we saw in Bahrain and I’m not quite sure – HPP will set the parameters to run the engine and I think there was a miscalculation that wasn’t argued or otherwise by the team at the track setting up the car." he continued.

“If that is the case, that’s good because that’s not a long-term problem. It’s not we’ve got a massive issue with the engine, it’s just there was a miscalculation for that race.

“Williams were suffering a little bit as well and maybe McLaren too – it wasn’t just a Mercedes works team specific problem.”

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes McLaren F1 George Russell David Croft