Mercedes Director Drops Big Hint On 2025 Car After Performance Boost

Saajan Jogia | Aug 8, 2024

May 4, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Crewmembers of the Mercedes driver George Russell (63) cool the car on the grid before the F1 Sprint Race at Miami International Autodrome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports / John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin dropped a big hint about the 2025 W16 F1 car after the outfit gained considerable performance in the recent Grands Prix. While expressing that it will be based on the current W15 F1 car, Shovlin also gave an insight into the cost considerations keeping in mind the new era of regulations in 2026 that will see cars based on an entirely different platform.

While Mercedes remained on the backfoot at the start of the current season as it carried forward its form from 2023, it pursued an aggressive development approach in recent months, offering the much-needed performance boost to challenge Red Bull at the front.

Mercedes has made significant progress, with either Lewis Hamilton or George Russell consistently securing podium finishes since the Canadian Grand Prix in early June. After struggling for the first two years of the ground effect era, the car has finally been brought to a point where it can compete with the fastest cars on the grid, including those from McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari.

Shovlin revealed that the aggressive development plan on the car will reach a point this season where the team will have to choose between developing it further with new parts or saving these new parts for the W16. He told the Motorsport Week:

“We will continue at the factory to find as much performance as we can.

“So that is what you are calling aggressive development, we’re flat-out trying to find performance.

“Later on in the year, there have to be discussions around ‘Is it this car or does it wait for the next car?’

“The cost cap inevitably means that those discussions are a trade between performance gain and cost.

“We do want to be fighting at the front next year. So we’re always going to make decisions that mean that that is a possibility.

“Then, in terms of the wind tunnel, you’ve got the point at which you progressively shift resources from the current car to next year’s car."

Shovlin guessed that all the F1 teams must have begun working on the 2025 car while addressing that the team will need an entirely new approach for the 2026 car, which will be "a completely different beast." He added:

"I think probably every team has already started working on next year’s car.

“But how rapidly you shift that resource over is a factor but teams may find that what works on this car works on next year’s anyway, or vice versa.

“So it’s not like the challenge we’ll have in 2026, where it’s a completely different beast.”

While a lot remains to be decided about the W16, Shovlin said it would be an evolution of the current car, a trend likely to be seen across the grid as teams build on their existing platforms. He explained:

“We haven’t made decisions yet on does the chassis stay the same? Does the gearbox stay the same?

“The reality is you probably can’t change everything. We’re at a stage now where we’re trying to evaluate those to look for the best return for your spend in the cost cap.

“However, I think, aerodynamically, our car and most people’s cars will be an evolution of what we have today – there’ll be significant changes on there but you won’t want to change the architecture of the car and take a big hit in the wind tunnel that you then have to recover – I don’t think many people will be doing that.”