W15 F1 car has “fundamental” issue which Mercedes “don’t understand”

Mercedes have a “fundamental” issue with the design of their 2024 F1 car which they currently “don’t understand”, according to Toto Wolff.

It was another disappointing showing from Mercedes at the second round of the season in Saudi Arabia as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished sixth and ninth respectively.

After the race, seven-time world champion Hamilton claimed Mercedes still need to make “big changes” to the W15, which was significantly revamped over the winter.

A frustrated Hamilton said it felt “like I was in a different category” compared to Mercedes’ rivals as he lamented his car’s lack of performance through Jeddah’s high-speed corners.

“There is something which we don't understand," Wolff acknowledged. “We are quick everywhere else pretty much.

“We know that we have a smaller rear wing, we're compensating what we're losing through the corners. But it's just at high speed where we're losing all the lap time.

"I think that's a biggie. There’s only so much you can tune here.

"Our simulations point us in a direction and this is the kind of set-up range that we then choose, where you put the right rear wing on.

“I think you'll gain a few tenths or not if you get the set-up right or wrong, but there's not a massive corridor of performance.

“It's more a fundamental thing, that we believe that the speed should be there. We measure the downforce but we don't find it in lap time.”

But Wolff remains confident that Mercedes can find a swift remedy for their current headache.

"It's been two years that there is something we need to spot, and that's the thing to unlock. We have just got to work,” he added.

"It's not through lack of trying. We've pushed so hard and we're going to give it a massive, massive go now in the next week, with more data to understand.

"We are going to come back to Melbourne strong. We are on a mission on this one. And I am 100% sure that we are going to unlock that performance gap."