Although Lewis Hamilton is jumping ship to Ferrari for 2025, Mercedes have no intent on sidelining the seven-time champion during his final season with them. After several complaints about his cockpit seating position last year, Mercedes have finally paid heed to Hamilton’s request in their W15 overhaul. According to Motorsport.com, the Brackley team have moved the cockpit towards the rear of the car by about 100 mm.
Hamilton often felt like “sitting on the front wheels” in the W14 due to the proximity of his seating position to them. This was also hurting the Briton as the rear of the car was unstable. Their technical director, James Allison, cited that the cockpit issue Hamilton faced was more of a “symptom” of their rear instability than its “cause”.
#F1 | Mercedes appears to have listened to Lewis Hamilton’s complaints and made changes to the W15’s seating position.
It is understood that the cockpit has been pushed away from the front axle by as much as 100mm – with the chassis, fuel tank and gearbox all having been… pic.twitter.com/oxJayailhO
— deni (@fiagirly) February 19, 2024
Still, sitting closer to the front tires hurt the #44 driver’s visibility of the corner apex. So, the Brackley team needed to fix this issue come what may. For this change, they have had to rearrange and modify several aspects of the car. However, that was anyways going to happen with their big concept change on the W15.
Mercedes have had to redesign its gearbox and fuel tank assembly in the rear of the car to accommodate the 100 mm shift of the cockpit. Given they were already going to redesign the chassis after dropping their zero side pod philosophy, this became part of the revamp process.
What else have Mercedes changed on the W15?
As Toto Wolff had promised that the W15 would be a completely new car, Mercedes have delivered on it. Looking at the visible changes, the side pods look much more like the rest of the grid. However, The Race‘s Gary Anderson suggested that they don’t seem fully committed to Red Bull’s philosophy.
Still, the radiator inlets are much more in line with what the Red Bull concept showcases. At the front of the car, experts have noticed a peculiar detail about the W15’s front wing. One of the flaps of the front wing has a very slimmed down tiny thread-like connection to the nose.
Now, this is something that may come under FIA scrutiny, given the technical regulations state that there should be four elements on the front wing. Mercedes may have done this to have better airflow around the nose.
Usually, they try to find out such small gray areas to gain performance advantages. So, it would be interesting to see whether they retain this innovation or not.
At the rear of the car, it is a clear concept change with a push rod rear suspension. Aston Martin’s car reveal gave a teaser of what Mercedes may do with its rear suspension and that assumption was on point.
Aerodynamically, a push rod setup at the rear is a clear choice, which many teams have opted for. So, this rear suspension would also help the Brackley team in resolving its instability issues on the rear of the car.
