F1 News: Mercedes working on major weakness after slow start to 2024

Hamilton during the race in Jeddah — Photo: © IMAGO

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Mercedes working on major weakness after slow start to 2024

Things haven't started particularly well for Mercedes in 2024

Cal Gaunt

Wednesday 20 March 2024 22:00 Updated: 22:12

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has admitted that the team are working hard on an issue they spotted in the first two races of the season.

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in particular showed just how much the W15 struggles in high speed corners, being outpaced by even the supposed weaker teams.

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Shovlin, one of the Mercedes personnel tasked with tackling this challenge, has now shed light on the reasons behind the W15's cornering struggles.

Lewis Hamilton has been unable to get his final Mercedes season off to a flying start

Mercedes determined to find a fix

"So the ones where the driver wants a lot of confidence, and quite often we were snapping to oversteer if they really leant on the tyres. And that… you can easily imagine how unsettling that is for the drivers.

“Now, that was a factor in qualifying and the race. In qualifying we were also suffering a bit with the bouncing. Now that was less of a problem in the race.

"There’s more fuel on the car. You’re going a bit slower. And that seemed to calm down and wasn’t such an issue. And then the big one is we don’t really have enough grip there.”

Andrew Shovlin says Mercedes are 'working hard' to correct a cornering issue with the W15

Despite the comparatively slower nature of the Melbourne circuit in contrast to Jeddah, Shovlin said that Mercedes remains dedicated to addressing this weakness ahead of the upcoming Australian Grand Prix.

He particularly highlighted that Albert Park features a similar configuration of corners to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, underlining the speedy nature in which the team needs to enhance their performance in this area.

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Andrew Shovlin