(Paris) Change to finally reconnect with success? Mercedes, reigning world vice-champion behind the powerful Red Bull, presented a “very different” car for the 2024 Formula 1 season, the last for its star driver Lewis Hamilton, expected at Ferrari next year.
Called W15, the 2024 livery that Hamilton and his British compatriot George Russell will drive still gives pride of place to black, with more silver, especially on the nose.
“Very different” from its predecessor on a technical level – “not only on the aerodynamic surfaces, but especially underneath” – explained boss Toto Wolff on Wednesday, Mercedes has made “a lot of mechanical changes”. Changes which, he hopes, “will result in more performance and more predictability” on the track.
For the eight-time constructors’ world champion, the objective of the season is clear: “consolidate [sa] position compared to Ferrari (3e of the 2023 championship, Editor’s note), McLaren (4e) or even Aston Martin (5e) and be at the front of this group,” Wolff said during an online presentation of the car.
Since 2022, Mercedes, so successful in recent years, has struggled to return to the top of the hierarchy.
In question, a single-seater which had difficulty adapting to the technical upheaval which came into force at the start of the 2022 season. Last year, the German team experienced its first season without a victory since 2011, where Red Bull has achieved 21 successes in 22 Grands Prix.
“We have had two difficult years […]but it helped us pull ourselves together and look things in the face,” admitted Hamilton, seven-time world champion, who has not won since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in December 2021.
Hamilton “mega motivated” for the last
Hamilton will compete in his final season with Mercedes this year after twelve years spent in the ranks of the German firm. He will join the legendary Ferrari team next year.
The last few weeks “have been full of emotions” admitted the champion. But fans of “Sir Lewis” can rest assured: “we are all extremely motivated for the year to come and we will give everything we have,” declared the driver during the presentation of the car.
Almost undisputed master of the circuits until 2020, the driver with 103 Grand Prix victories (a record) pushed the limits of his discipline by winning seven world titles, from 2008 to 2020, placing him tied with the German Michael Schumacher .
After the disillusionment of the title lost during the last race of the 2021 season against the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), the Briton experienced his very first season without a victory in 2022, failing in 6e place in the driver rankings.
In 2023, another season without a victory for Hamilton, although he climbed back to 3e place in the world championship behind the untouchable Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez.
Red Bull expected on Thursday
At the beginning of February, the surprise announcement of his departure for Ferrari at the end of the year caused a thunderclap in F1, reshuffling the cards on the transfer market.
To succeed him, several names are mentioned in the press such as that of the young Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli, promoted this year to Formula 2, or that of the veteran Fernando Alonso, whose contract with Aston Martin expires at the end of the season .
Earlier today, McLaren, which had already presented a livery of its 2024 single-seater in January, also unveiled its car which will take to the track next week during testing in Bahrain (February 21-23).
Red Bull, double reigning world champion, will be the last team to unveil its 2024 single-seater on Thursday in its workshops in Milton Keynes (England), amid growing speculation about the future of its boss Christian Horner, targeted by an internal investigation .
The F1 championship, which this year will include a record 24 Grands Prix, will resume on March 2 in Bahrain after three days of tests on the Gulf island which will provide a first glimpse of the forces involved.