Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ on-track technical director, outlines the extent of changes planned for next year to try to eradicate the W14’s handling issues; Watch this week’s Qatar Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1, with Saturday’s sprint at 6:30 PM and Sunday’s GP at 6:00 PM
Last updated: 02/10/23 2:44 PM
Mercedes’ in-development Formula 1 challenger for 2024 will mark a “quite significant” change for this year’s car – with the former champions “not sticking to concepts we’ve had before” as they look to return to ways to challenge the title. .
Speaking at the Japanese GP, technical director Andrew Shovlin said it was clear this year’s W14 “doesn’t have enough stability” with insufficient downforce, meaning drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell don’t have the confidence to fully tackle the fast corners to fall.
Shovlin says Mercedes has set itself “very ambitious targets” to improve things for 2024
“We’re going to change the car quite a bit for next year,” he said. “Whether we can solve all the problems we have with the handling will depend on the results of a number of projects.
“Those projects are ongoing. They’re not completed yet, but we have some good leads to try to improve that.”
Having already moved development this year on the so-called ‘zero sidepod’ concept that debuted last year at the start of the current rules era, Shovlin added: “The car will be different. We have changed it a lot. but it is still very early in the development of the new car to be able to say that we have done it.
“When we launched our best cars, in 2015 or 2019, those years, we didn’t know they were going to be great cars when we developed them. You just work as hard as you can and try to find as many achievements as you can. .
“We’ve missed performance targets by a wide margin on many of these cars, but what we do know is that if you’re not setting very ambitious targets, you’re probably not setting them high enough.”
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Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes needs next six months to be the biggest in their development history to close the gap with Red Bull
The Mercedes engineer was speaking the day before the team finished 50 seconds behind Max Verstappen at Suzuka and Hamilton said the former champions needed the “biggest six months of development we’ve ever had” to “bang on the door”. from Red Bull in early 2024.
It’s a challenge that the seven-time champion made clear he believes Mercedes is more than capable of.
Shovlin says Hamilton and Russell have been “very aligned” in addressing the W14’s weaknesses this season.
“We’re certainly not sticking to concepts that we’ve had before,” he added.
“We’re very open-minded. We’ve had some pretty grumpy years and we’re a team that’s working really hard to try to get back to the front.”
Mercedes is still upgrading the car this year
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Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin shares his thoughts on whether Lewis Hamilton would have won the Singapore GP had he been ahead of teammate George Russell
Mercedes’ lead over Ferrari for second place in the standings stands at 20 points, with the Scuderia having more than halved their gap to their rivals in the four races since the summer break.
To continue this year’s performance and promote understanding of next year’s W15, Mercedes has said some more upgrades will be brought to the final six rounds of this season.
Speaking in their post-Japan debriefing videoRosie Wait, the team’s head of race strategy, said: “The new parts we are bringing to the circuit do both; hopefully they add performance and make the current car go faster, but they are all specifically targeted at areas where we need to further our understanding.
“The things we will learn through testing this year will directly influence the development of the W15. We should also not lose sight of the fact that we are in a fierce battle for P2 with Ferrari and that the position in the championship is really very important. That is important to all of us. So we have upgrades in the pipeline and will continue to bring them to the car.”
Will Max Verstappen complete his third world championship at the first attempt at the Qatar GP? Watch every session of the sprint weekend live on Sky Sports F1 from October 6 to 8. Stream F1 and more with NOW for £21 per month for six months