Upcoming Mercedes F1 upgrades will ‘define their season and maybe even 2025’
The rest of Mercedes' 2024 season - and potentially 2025 - could hinge on upgrades, it has been claimed.
Martin Brundle believes Mercedes’ upcoming F1 upgrades will “define the rest of their season and maybe even 2025”.
Mercedes brought an upgrade package to the Miami Grand Prix but their underwhelming start to the 2024 season continued when both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were knocked out in the second part of sprint qualifying, and failed to score points in the sprint race.
Things improved in regular qualifying as they took seventh and eighth but ended up over eight tenths down on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Hamilton went on to finish sixth in the grand prix, with Russell eighth after a difficult race.
Mercedes have more updates in the pipeline and Brundle reckons these will be crucial to determining whether they can fix the issues with their W15 car.
“Lewis Hamilton had a feisty and fine race to sixth place including a couple of great overtakes, one in particular against the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg which was very brave,” Brundle wrote in his post-race column for Sky.
“The Mercedes had good speed in the closing stages, but once again both he and George Russell had a weekend of confusing and highly variable pace.
“Mercedes have some upgrades coming which will define the rest of their season and maybe even 2025, and demonstrate whether or not they can define and fix what is wrong with the car.
“Here's hoping they do, because the upgraded McLaren looks to be closer to Red Bull, and Ferrari are eagerly looking forward to their imminent upgrades too.”
Russell conceded after the race in Miami that Mercedes have a “painful few weeks” in store.
“McLaren qualified P17 and P18 12 months ago in Miami, and they won, so it shows what is possible when you get things right," Russell said. “But right now, we don't have things right and need to make changes quickly.
“We do have a few things coming in the short-term but nothing in the short-term that is going to transform us into race winners.
“So it is going to be painful for a few weeks. I think we have to accept that we are the fourth fastest-team.
“The lap-times and the championship don't lie, this is where we are and I think we're fighting for the P5-P8 region week in, week out."
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