‘Underperforming’ Mercedes “shouldn’t be proud” of F1 2024

Mercedes “underperformed” in F1 2024 and “shouldn’t be proud” of their season, according to former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner.

The Silver Arrows endured another disappointing campaign as both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell struggled to tame Mercedes’ unpredictable and inconsistent W15 car.

Mercedes did enjoy several high points, claiming a total of four race victories, but spent much of the year as the fourth-fastest team and ultimately finished a distant P4 in the constructors’ championship behind McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull. 

“I think Mercedes underperformed,” Steiner told the Red Flags podcast. “Obviously, because McLaren, with the same engine, did better. And I think Mercedes would admit to that.

“It was a long time that somebody with a customer engine won the World Championship, but they just did a good job. And I think the regulations helped, being stable for so long, because then, you know your engine package every year, and the engine being frozen, that helps a lot, that the engine doesn’t change.

“And you adapt your next year’s car always what you’ve got, and if you know what you’ve got well in advance, that helps you.

“So I think there was a few elements which helped them, but it’s still not easy to do if you’re not a producer of a power unit.

“McLaren can feel great and Mercedes shouldn’t be proud of it what they did.”

Wolff has ‘zero problem’ with defeat to customer

McLaren’s triumph in the constructors’ championship saw the Woking squad become the first customer team to win the title since Brawn GP in 2009.

But Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff insisted he had no issue with being beaten by a customer and branded McLaren’s championship win as “a success for Mercedes motorsport”.

Asked post-race in Abu Dhabi whether he was disappointed to have been beaten by a customer team, Wolff told media including Crash.net: “If we can’t win as a works team I’d much rather be beaten by a customer team.

“I have zero problem with that, it shows us where the benchmark is.

“There’s no discussion about the performance level of the engine, no discussion about driveability of the engine, none of that.

“World champions are our customers, we fight on the same terms, if they have better execution, better drivers then that’s completely fine for us.

“This is a success for Mercedes motorsport. It gives us the primary objective to win.”