Andrew Shovlin names his biggest ‘frustration’ with Mercedes struggles since 2021 heartbreak

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Mercedes has finally got itself back on course to winning races after two years of struggling and picking up podiums.

The team gambled on a radical design with the W13 that intially looked good in their simulation tools, but turned out to be a nightmare to setup on track.

Fast forward to 2024 and Mercedes has abandoned that concept entirely and went with a more conventional design in a bid to produce a more balanced car for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Team principal Toto Wolff believes the run of races into the European leg of the season made the ‘picture clearer’ for Mercedes, although it was not always the easiest package to exploit.

After the team suffered a heartbreak at the end of the 2021 season in Abu Dhabi, when Hamilton lost the Drivers’ title due to an error in Safety Car procedure, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained the biggest ‘frustration’ that Mercedes has faced when speaking to Formula.uno.

Andrew Shovlin names biggest ‘frustration’ at Mercedes

Mercedes has worked for two and a half years to get to this point where it can credibly win races on pure performance without any luck playing a role.

Shovlin believes they have learned a lot from having to deal with their struggles on track and gave some insight into whether they plan to keep exploting this design direction in future.

“The frustration is it was the third year in a row where we launched a car that wasn’t as good as we needed it to be. But we’ve learned a lot through this process,” said Shovlin.

“And given that the recent developments have been successful at bringing the performance we hoped, and next year’s car is likely to be a close cousin of this year’s car, we’re now more confident that we can carry this momentum into next year. More so than we have been in previous years.”

Mercedes reaping rewards of perseverance

Despite struggling at the start of the season, Mercedes reached a breakthrough within the first few races of the year having brought a new floor and front wing to the Monaco Grand Prix.

This proved itself at the next race in Canada when Russell took pole, while the team has now won three of the last four races.

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Mercedes took a step back at the most recent race in Belgium, Shovlin is confident they can make the new specification floor work at the high downforce Zandvoort.

Technical director James Allison elaborated on the changes they made specifically to their front wing, which unlocked more potential from the W15 and put them on the correct course after a winless 2023 season.