For the 2024 season, Mercedes is still figuring out how to catch Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
Toto Wolff has acknowledged that Mercedes will have to start over in order to catch Red Bull, which could cause Lewis Hamilton to regress in his pursuit of an eighth world championship. After Mercedes caught up to Red Bull at the end of the 2022 season, there was sincere optimism at the team going into this one.
Their one-two finish in Brazil led to some quiet confidence that they’d be challenging Verstappen from the very first race in 2023. But they were even further away than 12 months prior as the changes made in the offseason failed to have the desired effect.
George Russell and Hamilton were left feeling let down as they had to spend another season not challenging for consistent race victories. Before Wolff made the decision to abandon their design as the summer approached, the seven-time world champion made it plain after just a few races that he was unhappy with the direction the team had gone in.
Since then, Mercedes has developed, and the US Grand Prix may have been their best chance to seriously challenge Red Bull since 2021. That implies Mercedes’s current development plan is moving in the right direction.
However, Wolff insists they’ve taken this car as far as they can and the 2024 version will be completely different. “We are changing the car completely because we simply have to make the jump to Red Bull and half a second is missing,” Wolff said.
“We won’t achieve that in further development.” Mercedes will be hoping for a better offseason this time around than last year to avoid dropping further behind Red Bull again.
There are still four more chances this year for Mercedes to stand on top of the podium and for Hamilton to end his long wait for a race victory. His last win came at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with his next chance coming this weekend in Mexico.
But Hamilton’s best chance may come in Sao Paulo at the Brazilian Grand Prix next month. It’s a track the Brit has performed well at over the years and Mercedes will hope they can repeat their success from 2022.
However, Wolff has indicated the team are already well on their way to planning for 2024 with hopes of finally knocking Red Bull off their perch.
But, Hamilton’s best opportunity might occur at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo the following month. Mercedes is hoping to duplicate the British driver’s success on this track starting in 2022, as they have done well there over the years.
In an effort to finally unseat Red Bull, Wolff has stated that the team is already well on their way to making plans for 2024.
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