Mercedes are now ‘at least a year behind’ Formula 1 rivals in one key area

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Mercedes now find themselves ‘at least’ one year behind the biggest rivals in Formula 1 as they continue to struggle with the current set of regulations.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton appear to have lost ground on Ferrari and are now competing much more closely with McLaren and Aston Martin.

Speaking on The Race Podcast, journalist Ben Anderson talks about what’s going wrong when it comes to developing the W15.

Mercedes continue to fall behind their rivals

It’s been a tough couple of years for Toto Wolff’s team as they’ve watched Red Bull race off into the distance at every race weekend.

They haven’t won a Grand Prix since 2022 when Russell took his maiden win in Brazil.

The team spoke of having ‘fundamental problems’ with the car after the race in Saudi Arabia.

Their performance so far this year won’t have Lewis Hamilton questioning whether he made the right call by switching to Ferrari next year.

There are also major concerns about the simulation tools Mercedes are using, as the data being produced behind the scenes doesn’t match what’s happening on track.

Mercedes are quickly falling behind their rivals and that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

That was epitomised by the reaction of the Mercedes garage to watching Lando Norris accelerate away from Hamilton at the end of the race in Jeddah.

Mercedes need to find solutions ASAP

Asked if he’s been surprised that Mercedes’s problems have persisted, Ben Anderson said: “I don’t think I’m surprised anymore, I’m disappointed because as I was saying last year, I felt like Ferrari and Mercedes let Formula 1 down by not kicking on properly and giving Red Bull a pretty much free run at it.

“This year, they seem to be eliminating the obvious excuses but fundamentally they just seem at least a year behind the curve and that remains the case since the ground-effect era started.

“In 2022, they were too aggressive with the design, too much bouncing, the rules got changed to raise the floor height, which is something they pushed for.

“And then in 2023, even though they encouraged the FIA to change things to eliminate their big problem, the bouncing, they decided as James Allison explained not to kind of go into that region of development, that window lower to the ground.”

Mercedes can’t afford to stay behind their rivals until the next major rule change comes to Formula 1 in 2026.

They need to attract the best replacement possible for Hamilton and that might be Fernando Alonso.

However, if he decides that extending his stay at Aston Martin is a better option than driving for the Silver Arrows, then that’s a damming testament to how far they’ve fallen since being serial world champions.