(Motorsports news) Mercedes has had a difficult season, the advancements it had anticipated to make with the W14 have not materialized as a result of its position against Red Bull. The team quickly realized that its overall car concept was flawed and that running its aero platform too high,2 cost it too much performance in comparison to rivals who run considerably closer to the ground.

The team is certain that a major revision to its strategy for 2024 will pay off and allow Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to finally compete against pacesetter Red Bull on an equal footing. The size of the task, though, appears enormous given Red Bull’s complete dominance and its benchmark RB19 car, which has won every race so far this F1 season.

Since Red Bull has had a comfortable lead throughout the current season and has not needed to introduce a string of significant developments, it is also possible that it was able to get a head start on the development of its RB20. The history of F1 demonstrates that powerful teams can keep their advantage for years before the status is shaken up, as was the case with the 2021 floor alterations that favored Red Bull and damaged Mercedes.

It is therefore a very difficult task to anticipate Red Bull’s competitors to catch up given that the rules will remain unchanged through 2024. Toto Wolff, the head of the Mercedes team, believes that the current generation of vehicles has demonstrated that teams can see a significant turnaround in fortunes once they are on top of what is required.

According to him, the advancements made by Aston Martin during the winter and McLaren during the 2023 season serve as proof of what is feasible and provide justification for Mercedes’ ability to compete with Red Bull the next year. When questioned, if it was reasonable to expect the lead to be closed by 2024, he responded, “I think where we are, we just need a step that McLaren and Aston Martin have achieved in one go.”

You return to the game after a five tenths update rather than a two tenths update. Therefore, I believe it is conceivable. Mercedes now has a stronger understanding of the types of vehicles required to succeed in the new ground effect age, and Wolff claimed that the W15 design was undergoing numerous alterations.

He did acknowledge, however, that Mercedes did not have all the necessary solutions and was currently looking into a variety of options to determine the best course for development. “I think we have a few directions,” he said. “If we knew, it would be much simpler, but the automobile is just incredibly erratic and slippy. Therefore, you have a ton of tasks to complete.

“In F1, we frequently think there is a magic solution that will solve all of our problems. To make the parts of the car operate together, I believe we merely need to put them together. There isn’t a single subject that I would single out.

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