Ex-F1 Technical Director slams Lewis Hamilton’s demands for big changes to Mercedes W15

The 2024 season was off to a rocky start for Mercedes after scoring mediocre points in both races. Notably, the W15 challenger isn’t one of the best creations by Brackley. Lewis Hamilton has been vocal about the shortcomings of the car. Hence, the seven-time world champion reckoned the major upgrades could potentially improve the chassis.

Former F1 Technical Director Gary Anderson has slammed Lewis Hamilton for his comments. Anderson pointed towards how the Briton said that big changes need to be made to the car following a disappointing end to the Saudi Arabian GP. Additionally, the Englishman asserted how the Mercedes star was talking about concepts that were visible on rival team’s cars.

After the race Hamilton said that big changes need to be made to the car. He mentioned that the other teams around them still have different concepts, but Hamilton is talking about what you can see.

Anderson wrote for telegraph.co.

Anderson highlighted that the underfloor was the most important part of the car and how Hamilton was oblivious to the rival team’s setup for the same. Additionally, the 73-year-old added that the seven-time world champion is trying to bring resemblances from the radically-designed Red Bull’s RB20. However, W15 requires a lot more work rather than just visuals and the team is still unaware of the ground-effects required to the challenger according to Anderson.

The critical parts on these cars is the underfloor and Hamilton does not know what the other teams are doing there. He seems to be of the frame of mind that if Mercedes make their car look like a Red Bull it will go as fast as one – it will not. The W15 needs a lot more work than the visual concept.

Mercedes need to face reality of its issues with W15

The W15 challenger is highly unstable at high speeds and produces problems for the drivers. As a result, Gary Anderson asserted that the season was already looking like a repeat of previous years. Additionally, Mercedes needs to be realistic about the challenger’s performance and ‘wake up to reality’ according to the Englishman.

Two races in and their performances suggest they are still suffering from an inability to overcome its limitations. It feels like a repeat of 2022 and 2023. The team need to be realistic about their car and must wake up to the reality that they have a problem.

Anderson mentioned how Brackley was ‘fooling themselves’ over the chassis’ performance and needed to work over the car. However, the 73-year-old was not hesitant to acknowledge Mercedes’ competitive performance during the early practice sessions. The following session is met with a decline in performance by Brackley and hence causes them trouble during the race.

In some ways they are still fooling themselves and this goes down to how they approach the weekend. Throughout Bahrain and Saudi Arabia they have looked competitive in the early practice sessions before dropping back. 

As a result, Mercedes needs to resort to constantly working over the challenger to juice out maximum performance. The team is capable of competing down the latter half of the season following some tweaks to the chassis. A failed chance at the world championship isn’t what Brackley wants to give to Hamilton before his turn to Ferrari in the 2025 season.

In case you missed it:

• Ex-Haas boss Guenther Steiner claims he would’ve taken the ‘risk’ of putting Oliver Bearman in an F1 seat for 2025
• Ferrari breaks silence on rumours that Oliver Bearman will be Lewis Hamilton’s replacement once he leaves Maranello

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