Johnny Herbert admits something ‘very weird’ is going on with Mercedes 2024 F1 car

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Former Formula 1 driver Johnny Herbert has suggested that something ‘very weird’ is currently going on with Mercedes’s 2024 car.

It’s been a far from straightforward start to the season for Toto Wolff’s team as they find themselves sitting fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Speaking to Racing News 365, Herbert admitted he’s worried about the steps the German manufacturer are taking to resolve their issues.

Johnny Herbert concerned by Mercedes 2024 Formula 1 car

After years of dominating the sport, Mercedes have been left behind by Red Bull in the past two seasons.

Max Verstappen has enjoyed an unprecedented level of success ever since his last-lap triumph in Abu Dhabi in 2021.

Mercedes have attempted to close the gap on Red Bull during that time, but don’t appear to completely understand what’s going wrong with their car.

The team admitted they were investigating ‘fundamental’ problems with the car after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton in particular doesn’t seem to be able to get to grips with the car and might be wishing he made the switch to Ferrari for this season instead.

His teammate George Russell is leading the way for the Silver Arrows right now which will give Wolff a slither of hope that he’s the right man to lead the team for 2025 and beyond.

Johnny Herbert has been dissecting what’s been going wrong with Mercedes’s car in 2024 and why their lack of progress is a particular worry.

Lewis Hamilton will want Mercedes F1 farewell to end on a high

Talking about the challenges Mercedes face, Herbert said: “It’s very weird. I’ve looked at what they’ve done over the last two years.

“When they first came up with their original concept (the ‘zeropod’) a couple of years ago I thought ‘I like that’. It was really tightly packaged, looked racy, looked really good, but, of course, it was bouncing all over the place.

“They reduced that a little bit, then they got to the end of the year, and they said ‘Yeah, we know what we need to fix the car’, but it came out of the blocks and stumbled again. They had similar issues.

“Then they did the upgrade, which was better. but it still didn’t really move them that much further up, just sporadically it sort of improved.

“They went through the winter, and they again said ‘We know what we need to do’, but they’ve come out of it, and it’s the same. They are literally in the same position, with Lewis saying their problem is (pause) the bouncing again!

“So, they haven’t been able to get rid of that, and that’s a worry because this is the third season effectively where they haven’t got it, they’re just running around in circles.”

Mercedes facing several issues with their car once again

Johnny Herbert’s assessment of the 2024 Mercedes F1 car is damming and it’s hard to see how they’ll be able to fix these issues in the short-term.

In Jeddah, they were the slowest car through parts of the track, being left behind by even the likes of Williams and Alpine.

The grounding of the car is a particular worry and may stem from what was arguably their best race of 2023.

Lewis Hamilton secured what he thought was an important second place in Austin and appeared to be catching Max Verstappen towards the end of the Grand Prix.

That was until he – and Charles Leclerc – were disqualified after an inspection of the plank on the bottom of the car.

Mercedes adjusted the car for the following races and Hamilton legitimately finished second in Mexico City, before a disastrous Grand Prix in Brazil.

The race at Interlagos highlighted that the team still didn’t understand what was going wrong and even after a winter of development, those problems appear to be persisting.