The 2024 Monaco GP was a turning point in Mercedes’ ground-effects era. In the past, the Silver Arrows had quite publicly suffered from an aerodynamic imbalance. The W13, W14, and the early-spec W15 were all limited on balance. They would either work well in high-speed corners or low-speed ones, but never both.
But in the last few races, the team have seemingly solved that issue to widen the window of performance on their cars. Despite seemingly figuring out the solution to their problems, Mercedes technical director James Allison feels embarrassed.
Discussing the moment when Mercedes figured out the way they could overcome their balance issues, Allison was quoted on the F1 Nation podcast as saying, “This is more of a ‘Oh god how could we been so dumb’ type moment where you see the path forward and you should have seen it sooner.”
The W15 has seen several small upgrades and setup tweaks implemented on it. But the major change that defined their recent upturn in performance was an upgraded front wing design that they debuted at the Monaco GP. Having said that, team boss Toto Wolff is not convinced that an upgraded front wing has alone magically solved all their problems.
No silver bullets for Mercedes in 2024
The team’s recent performances have mainly been attributed to their front-wing design. The Silver Arrows had begun the season with an uncharacteristic front wing design which was also scrutineered but later approved by the FIA.
However, from the Monaco GP onwards, the team tried a more conventional wing design. George Russell debuted it on the streets of Monte Carlo and Lewis Hamilton got a piece of the same in Montreal.
Mercedes eagerly anticipates the Spanish stage of the 2024 World Championship following a promising weekend in Canada.
– Toto Wolff expressed optimism, stating, “We have continued to achieve incremental improvements in the last few races. It was therefore encouraging to take… pic.twitter.com/yX8Sqvz7yI
— This is Formula 1 (@ThisIsFormu1a1) June 18, 2024
But Wolff insists that Mercedes’ supposed resurgence isn’t based on a single magic trick. He told RacingNews365, “There’s no such thing as the silver bullet in Formula 1. And, therefore, it was a constant work of understanding what was wrong, and I know that everybody got tired by this answer.”
He also explained that it is impossible to reverse engineer a car as dominant as Red Bull and expect instant results. Hence, it was only through constant improvements that the team have gotten to where they are today. This could be problematic for Red Bull who may now have three rivals going for the win in Spain this weekend.
