Following the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time World Champion, extended his poor start to the season, finishing at P7 at the Sakhir Circuit. His underwhelming performance was also carried into the Saudi grounds, evident in his results of all sessions of the Saudi Arabian GP.
Amidst yet another lackluster Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has once again come forward to express the ‘unresolved’ issues with his Mercedes W15 F1 machine.
Lewis Hamilton talks on one thing Mecedes must fix in W15
On Saturday, 9th March, Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time Formula 1 Champion, came forth to reveal the major ‘recurring’ issue in the Mercedes W15 that has been plaguing the team’s performance for the past F1 seasons.
In a post-qualifying interview, Lewis Hamilton, who’s changing seats to Ferrari in 2025, again raised his concerns over the W15’s bouncing issue. Speaking to the media, he said, “We’ve got to fix it – that’s like three years in a row.”
“It’s just we’re being hindered by the bouncing that we have, and the bouncing we have through [Turns] 6-7-8-9-10, which I think probably affected George and it’s something that they’ve not been able to fix. We’ve tried every set-up change. We can’t get rid of it. It’s difficult to explain it, Hamilton added.
“We had some bouncing in Bahrain but nowhere near as intense as here. But that first sector is super high speed, a lot of yaw in the car, and a lot of lateral loads, and the bouncing really offsets the car quite a bit,” the Briton concluded.
Hamilton’s strong words come right before the racing event of the Saudi Arabian GP, where the German Giants had yet another ‘disappointing’ performance.
Mercedes performance in Saudi Arabian GP
Mercedes’ biggest troubles lie with its 2024 F1 challenger, the W15, that has put forth terrible performances since the season’s start. The W15’s latest result at the Saudi Arabian GP is a solid testament to its underperformance.
Mercedes was clearly seen struggling badly during the Saudi Arabian GP, which is highlighted in their ‘disappointing’ results- a P9 (1:21:30.664) finish from Lewis Hamilton and P6 (1:21:23.209) for George Russell. In the end, the Brackley squad luckily managed to grab 10 points, courtesy of Russell’s 8 and Hamilton’s 2 points.
The German team’s latest results come after an equally disappointing performance at the Bahrain GP’s qualifications sessions, where they acquired P8 and P7 of the starting grid.
The free practice sessions of the Saudi Arabian GP were also unsatisfying for Mercedes: P8 and P4 in FP1, P8 and P2 in FP2, and P9 and P4 in FP3.
As for the silver lining of the Silver Arrow’s dark clouds, Mercedes can still have a shot for P2 in the Constructor’s Championship, where they are in P3 with 28 points- 21 points behind 2nd-seater Scuderia Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton and the rest of the Mercedes crew will now travel to Melbourne, and race with the ‘bouncy’ W15 on March 24th at the Australian Grand Prix.
Has Hamilton raced with any other worse F1 machine than the W15? Can Mercedes solve the car’s ‘bouncing’ issue before the Australian GP? Or will the season keep getting worse for the Silver Arrows? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
