Mercedes Reveals Lewis Hamilton W15 Struggles Ahead Of Ferrari Move

Saajan Jogia | 17 Hours Ago

Nov 23, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Mercedes AMG Petronas driver Lewis Hamilton (44) during the Las Vegas Grand Prix at Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who will transition to Ferrari at the start of the new year, faced a challenging season with the team's W15 F1 car despite the Brackley outfit making strides from the previous year, securing four Grand Prix victories. Mercedes' head of trackside engineering, Andrew Shovlin, explained that Hamilton's difficulties largely arose from the team's inability to maintain the car within a "balance window" that suited his driving style.

While Hamilton intended to end his last season with Mercedes on a high note, the W15 showed no signs of significant progress after the summer break. He secured two race wins at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps, but was out-qualified by his teammate George Russell on most race weekends.

Shovlin highlighted specific aspects of Hamilton's driving style that conflicted with the car's performance characteristics, making it challenging for him to extract its full potential. While Mercedes worked diligently to address this issue, it achieved only limited success, with a breakthrough moment coming during the Las Vegas Grand Prix, where the Briton started tenth on the grid but raced his way through to finish in second place. Shovlin explained:

"The car hasn't been quick enough, and that's been the thing that we've been trying to solve.

"The car hasn't been easy to get into a nice balance window, and particularly once you get there, keeping it there has been a challenge.

"Beyond all of that, I think you know Lewis has struggled on a single lap. His race pace has been there throughout the weekend. But it's just with a close grid, you often start a few places behind your team-mate, and then you're held up and you can't show what you can do.

"But the read on Lewis's race pace has been very good. He showed in Las Vegas that if he has a car that works the way he wants, he can fight right back to the front. And we very much saw the old Lewis."

Hamilton admitted that his qualifying speed hasn't been as good as before, but Shovlin attributed the lack of pace to the setup and agreed that the approach adopted in Las Vegas was the right one to suit the seven-time world champion's driving style. He added:

"The issue really for him has just been when you are trying to extract that last tenth or two.

"It's been difficult in terms of trying to avoid brake locking, trying to avoid snaps on exit. It's just those issues.

"But the way the team looks at that is that we needed to give Lewis a car more like the one we had in Vegas, where it does suit his style, and he can do his best work with it."

Managing rear tire temperature has been a critical challenge on the W15, particularly evident during cornering under acceleration. Shovlin said:

"I think these days, a lot of it is keeping heat out of the rear tyres. If you approach a corner in a way that that means that they're hot, or if you're having to turn the car on the throttle, then you will struggle with that.

"[Braking style] may be a factor in amongst it all, but I don't really know enough about Magnussen and Ricciardo to know whether that was their issue.

"But certainly keeping the heat out of the rear tyres on a single lap is the most important thing at about half to two thirds of the circuits."

As a result, Hamilton suffered more than Russell since the data indicated that his car oversteered more while exiting corners, which overheated the rear tires more. When asked if the data showed a difference in performance with Russell, Shovlin said:

"I mean, not really in the style or approach, because Lewis is wise enough to know that if something is working for George, he can adapt his driving to go in that direction.

"There are things that you can see that ultimately, when they really start pushing, then that's when you start to get the snaps of oversteer on exit.

"And that, on occasion, is an area that Lewis might suffer more from than George. But, as I said, the focus for our year has been, how do we get the car in a way that Lewis needs to allow him to drive it on the limit and not suffer those problems."