Mercedes’ nearly anonymous F1 season is drawing to a close. In Las Vegas, the 22nd race of the current campaign, we are also nearing the end of the long-standing partnership between the Brackley team and Lewis Hamilton, who will move to Ferrari starting January 1, 2025. This scenario seemed far off when the contract between the parties was announced, but now we are truly on the verge of what will likely be the most anticipated move in the history of motorsport’s top category.
It’s time for reflection for the Anglo-German team, which has been the fourth force in the championship for most of the season, with only a few races conducted at a high level, but at this point more by chance than by design: in fact, the updates brought to the W15 at the beginning of the season were not very impactful, and a mix of old and new solutions brought about temporary competitiveness before the summer break, when both Ferrari and Red Bull were struggling.
Hamilton and Russell managed to win races mostly due to the temporary failures of the two aforementioned teams, particularly Ferrari, which only found its way back after the summer break, thanks to corrections made to the SF-24 after the disastrous Barcelona update. The engineer responsible, Enrico Cardile, eventually left, though it is unclear whether he did so voluntarily or was dismissed by the leadership of the Scuderia.
With the championship long decided and the realization, after the summer break, that Mercedes was not even close to the level of McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull, the team is now focused on 2025 and the subsequent season, which will be crucial for the brand’s revival in F1 after several years of struggle with a technical regulation that has never truly been accepted at Brackley and Brixworth. This is the plan for the Brackley team to return to prominence after the recent challenging years.
F1, Mercedes: The Goal is to Finish Strong with Hamilton
The focus of the final act of the 2024 season, a triple header starting in Las Vegas, then moving through Qatar and ending in Abu Dhabi, is for Mercedes to finish Lewis Hamilton’s journey with the team on a high note. The seven-time world champion is clearly the most representative figure in the history of this brand in F1, with six world titles won with the official team and one with McLaren powered by the Stuttgart V8 engine, back in the now-distant 2008 season.
“We are heading to Las Vegas ready for the last three races of the season,” said Toto Wolff. “We want to finish 2024 on a high note, providing great excitement and creating momentum for 2025. Concluding our incredible journey with Lewis in a beautiful way is a key goal. We are excited to return to Las Vegas: last year, F1 gave us an extraordinary spectacle. Seeing the cars speeding down the Strip at night was one of the most iconic moments of the entire season.”
In Brazil, the W15 earned only 16 points with both drivers, and even considering the Sprint Race, the haul was quite poor. Russell’s anger after the race is understandable, having led for much of the first half before a red flag disrupted his and others’ aggressive yet effective strategies, raising questions about the “free” tire change rule before the restart.
In those wet conditions, the car was still competitive, and early signs of this had appeared, for example, in the Canadian Grand Prix, when the British driver missed out on victory due to a few on-track misjudgments, leaving the win to Max Verstappen, who was then heading towards his fourth world championship before the RB20 suffered a significant technical setback.
Rain is unlikely this weekend in Nevada, according to the latest forecasts, but there will be unusually cold temperatures for an F1 race, with extremely low temperatures (currently, as this article is written, it’s 4°C at 6 am Las Vegas time), which will undoubtedly challenge everyone. Will Mercedes take advantage of any opportunities on the Strip? Perhaps with a slippery track due to the cold, the W15 could find itself a little more at ease.
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