Lewis Hamilton found himself battling with Lando Norris in the closing stages of the 2024 Saud Arabian GP. But despite his best efforts, he couldn’t pass the McLaren driver. This exposed a very major flaw in the Mercedes team, according to Peter Windsor.
On lap 36, Hamilton boxed for a set of soft tires and Norris followed suit on the very next lap. However, McLaren managed to overcut Hamilton and that set up an epic 12-lap showdown at the Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit. The result of the race was a bitter pill to swallow for the Brackley-based team. Hamilton, who finished P9, was being powered by a Mercedes power unit and had three DRS zones to aid his cause.
Norris, on the other hand, was in a customer McLaren that used Mercedes engines. Despite this, McLaren was able to show that they were supremely quicker than the Silver Arrows, especially in the twisty and aerodynamically demanding middle part of the lap.
Windsor explained on his YouTube channel, “It’s an embarrassing day for the factory Mercedes team to be honest. Because there they got beaten by their customer team running a setup that was the best setup for the race.”
Both the Mercedes W15s were having a tough day at the office against the McLarens. Oscar Piastri beat George Russell to P4 at the chequered flag. Also, during the opening lap, Piastri was battling with Hamilton, who once again couldn’t do much to trouble the Aussie driver.
Troubling Mercedes flaws exposed at the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP
The Saudi Arabian GP was an affair to forget for Mercedes. While they were getting dominated by McLaren, the Woking-based team wasn’t the only customer outfit who were faster than them. Aston Martin showed some strong performance too, after their underwhelming Bahrain GP two weeks ago.
Fernando Alonso had good race pace on his AMR-23, which too, was powered by a Mercedes power unit. The Spaniard took P5 as the chequered flag fell, four seconds ahead of Russell.
Despite evidently lacking straight-line speed, the AMR23 excelled where the W15 could not. Alonso could be seen pulling an ample gap to Russell during the middle part of the lap. This highlighted the Silverstone-based team’s aerodynamic superiority.
Before the Australian GP, Mercedes will be hoping for major improvements. As things stand, they are behind Ferrari, McLaren, and Aston Martin in terms of performance.
