For eight years from 2014-2021, Mercedes was the best team in Formula 1, winning the Constructor’s Championship in each of those years. Lewis Hamilton was champion in five of them and was edged out by team-mate Nico Rosberg in 2016.
Only in the last of these seasons did a driver from another team, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, secure the driver’s title and that was in highly controversial circumstances.
Since then, however, Verstappen and Red Bull have left the competition miles behind, while Mercedes have struggled with technical issues, like porpoising in 2022. If the performance was not quite as bad in 2023, the gap was still huge and a distant third place was no consolation for Lewis Hamilton, now winless in two years.
Hamilton’s upcoming departure to Ferrari may suggest he feels Mercedes is far from recapturing old glories. But could the team find the precision engineering hacks it needs to close the gap to Red Bull in 2024?
The F1 website has asked this very question; It noted that while the 2023 car improved a little, the W14 still carried many hallmarks – and faults – of its W13 predecessor in 2022. However, there were some positive signs, not least after the return of James Allison as technical director.
Obvious changes for this year include the reshaped side pod, the replacement of a pull rod with a pushrod for rear suspension and the cockpit being pushed back, something Hamilton has argued for.
The tough question is just how much Mercedes can progress with these changes. Winning the Constructor’s Championship or even getting Hamilton to the title may be a long shot, but what else is there to try to do while the most prolific race winner in F1 history still is in the hot seat?
For all that Hamilton might have been attracted by the prospect of change, the fact remains that no Ferrari driver has won the title since Kimmi Raikkonen in 2007. Unless Ferrari have some technical aces up their sleeves, it may be that an improved Mercedes car could be his last best chance of winning a record-breaking eighth title.