Mercedes engineer, Andrew Shovlin, provides a sneak peek into the W16, the successor to the current Mercedes vehicle. The technical director candidly admits that the team is still uncertain about how much the successor will change compared to the W15.
Mercedes was responsible for the turnaround in the first half of the season. The German team, which was initially in the midfield at the start of 2024, clinched three victories before the summer break. However, Mercedes’ recent breakthrough does not mean that the W15 has become the benchmark within the Formula 1 field.
Note: We aim to have the two best drivers, regardless of Mercedes’ progress.
“The main remaining weaknesses are in hot conditions on rear-limited circuits. We are not as good as the McLarens or Max (Verstappen’s Red Bull),” said Shovlin, speaking to Motorsport Week. “We saw this in Budapest and Austria, but our race pace deficit in Budapest was smaller. So I think we have made progress there.”
Focus on W16
However, Mercedes cannot continue to freely tweak the W15. The focus is gradually shifting to the W16, the car for 2025. “We are continuing in the factory to find as much performance as possible,” the Brit admitted. “So that’s what you call aggressive development. Later in the year, there will be discussions about ‘Is it for this car or does it wait for the next car?’. The cost cap inevitably means that these discussions are a trade-off between performance gains and costs.”
The successor to the W15 will therefore be a kind of “cousin” to the current car, although Shovlin does not yet know exactly what the car will look like. “We have not made decisions about whether the chassis remains the same. Does the gearbox stay the same?” the engineer honestly shared. “The reality is that you probably can’t change everything. I think aerodynamically our car and most teams’ cars will be an evolution of what we have today.”
