The key weakness Mercedes are focused on ‘fixing’ for W16 F1 car

Mercedes have revealed the main target area for improvement as their focus shifts towards their 2025 F1 car.

Since winning three out of four races prior to the summer break, Mercedes have managed just a single podium finish across the following seven rounds, while a recent upgrade package introduced at the United States has led to complications.

Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin says the team acknowledge the W15 remains “weak” in slow corners, which is a key goal to address with their 2025 challenger.

"Where we tend to be weak, it is in the slow speed corners, particularly the ones where you have got one corner following into another,” Shovlin said in the team’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix debrief.

“There is a lot of turning of the car, and that is a weakness that we need to work on. We did not expect this update kit to improve that. All we expected was this to just lift the base performance of the car. In terms of what we have seen, we are confident it is doing what was expected.

"However, we are also confident there are some fundamentals that we have got to get to grips with on this car in order to fix them on the W16, and we are very busy with that right now, and hopefully making the right changes over the winter so that we are not struggling with these weaknesses next year.”

Shovlin indicated that Mercedes will continue to experiment with their car as they look to get to the bottom of their current poor performance.

"The main thing in terms of learning is that the corners that we are weak in are still the same ones. It is the interconnected, slow corners. That is normally where we trip up,” he continued.

"The big focus in these remaining races for us is learning what we can. We are in a position in the championship where we cannot challenge in front of us. It is very unlikely we are going to see any challenge from behind.

"Our focus has very much shifted to learning what we need to this year to apply to next year in order to get on top of those issues.”

And Mercedes believe the remaining three rounds in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi will provide some crucial learning.

“We are going to be looking at all the remaining tracks to assess performance and just confirm what we understand about this car and whether the changes we are hoping to make for next year are going to improve those areas,” Shovlin said.

“Vegas has a lot of straight line and low-speed corners. Qatar is a faster track. And then, finishing in Abu Dhabi, which is a mix of everything, it will give us a good read on how we are performing and who is the benchmark.

“Sometimes it is Red Bull, sometimes McLaren, sometimes Ferrari, but it will allow us to establish the gap that we need to close down over those winter months.”