Mercedes tries to return to the top after Hamilton’s farewell – 02/19/2024 – Sport

Toto Wolff, Mercedes boss, often makes an analogy about climbing Mount Everest to describe his team’s effort over the last two years to reach the performance of Red Bull and, especially, Max Verstappen. He did it again last week when the German team revealed Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s car for the 2024 F1 season.

“If a team is too far ahead, like Red Bull was last year, it won’t be easy,” said the Austrian. “It’s a big mountain to climb,” he added.

The current gap is already large. It became evident when the 2023 season came to an end, confirming with closed numbers what was seen throughout the year: an almost absolute dominance by Red Bull.

There were 21 victories, in 22 races — 19 of which were Verstappen’s; more than half of the pole positions, with 14, 12 of which also went to the Dutchman; and 87% of all laps of the year in the lead (1,149), with 75%, or 1,003, with the current three-time champion, just to name some of the main numbers of the year.

Somehow shaking this hegemony is Mercedes’ big plan for 2024. But the challenge took on extra significance as it is Lewis Hamilton’s last year at the team before the seven-time champion’s move to Ferrari in 2025.

More than continuing to climb the hill, Wolff began to hope that the Briton’s last dance with the team with which he won six of his seven titles would be a victorious season again.

“We are motivated to make a really fast car, working hard in the factory to deliver a great product,” said the Austrian.

The presentation of the new Mercedes model gave some clues as to the path the team chose to follow. In addition to the paintwork, now a mix of silver, with which the team was marked in the years in which it was at the forefront of the category, with black, adopted since 2020 at Hamilton’s request as a symbol in the fight against racism, the new car presented a new aerodynamic concept.

The team buried the so-called “zero sipodes” once and for all, with very narrow sides, leaving the edges of the floor protruding, which never proved the performance on the tracks that was seen in the wind tunnel. Instead, it developed a more traditional chassis, with new front and rear suspensions, changed the position of the drivers, brought a new gearbox, as well as aerodynamic details that were almost impossible to detect, such as the height of the floor to the ground, but which can make a big difference in racing.

According to technical director James Allison, the rear of the car also received special attention after being described by Hamilton and George Russell as “unpredictable” and “spiteful”. The drivers did not have the confidence to take high-speed curves throughout 2023. Furthermore, the car seemed to drag in a straight line, which harmed the effect of the DRS (the opening of the movable wing), one of the Red’s strongest points. Bull.

“We worked to try to create a car that was comforting for the drivers,” said Allison. “We’ve made mechanical changes that we hope will translate into more performance, predictability, and a car they [os pilotos] can really boost,” added Wolff.

The first test of the new Mercedes will be this Wednesday (21), when the F1 pre-season begins at the Bahrain circuit. There will be three days of activities on the Middle East track.

On each day, teams will have eight hours of track time, divided into two four-hour sessions. Activities start at 10 am local time (4 am Brasília time). The Bandsports channel will broadcast. The first stage of the year will be held on March 2nd, also in Bahrain, at 12pm (Brasília time).

In 2023, right after testing, Hamilton already realized that the year would be difficult with the car that Mercedes had. His lack of confidence that the team could make a big leap this year is one of the reasons given by the English press for his transfer to Ferrari starting next year.

At the launch of the new Mercedes car, Hamilton acknowledged that he has been going through an “emotional period” since the announcement of his change, after all it has been 11 years with the German team, but that he will do everything he can to have a great last year with the team.

Although his ultimate dream is to win the eighth title of his career, he has more modest expectations for this year, such as winning a race again to put an end to the biggest win gap of his career. His last triumph — the 103rd of his career in F1 — was at the Saudi Arabian GP, ​​in 2021.

After that, Mercedes only managed to win a single race, in 2022, with George Russell, at the São Paulo GP. Even without winning in the 2023 season, the team finished as runner-up, three points ahead of Ferrari (409 to 406), a rival with which it managed to fight well, since Red Bull had a separate World Cup, with 860 points, more than the two rivals combined.