Lewis Hamilton was visibly dejected after qualifying in Monza, admitting that Pole Position escaped him after a series of mistakes. However, his frustration turned into acceptance on Sunday, with the W15 nowhere near fast enough to fight at the front. Despite securing race victories with regularity just over a month ago, Mercedes are concerned they have lost ground to rivals.
Mercedes fall behind in Italy
Much like in Zandvoort, Mercedes began their weekend in Italy with strong pace. The W15 was competitive on both low and high-fuel simulations, prompting positive comments from Hamilton after Friday practice.
However, even then, the 7-time Champion was cautious about jumping to conclusions. Experiencing a drop in performance from Friday to Saturday is not an uncommon experience for Mercedes in 2024.
In fairness to the Silver Arrows, their performance became far more consistent before the summer pause. Unfortunately for the team, the W15 declined as the Italian GP weekend progressed – at least relative to their rivals.
Speaking post-race, Andrew Shovlin (trackside engineering director) discussed the state of play at Mercedes:
“We didn’t have the pace to be able to both manage the tyres and keep up with our competitors ahead…
“It looks like we’ve lost some pace relative to our rivals since the summer break.
“We will go away and investigate why that is and what we need to do to put in a more competitive showing in Baku.”
Looking ahead to the next sequence of races, the Brackley-based team should perform slightly better. The Monza circuit does not play to the W15’s strengths, something which was anticipated some time ago.
Then again, Italy was not supposed to be a strong track for McLaren on paper either – and they were the strongest force.
Recent upgrades from Ferrari and McLaren have given Mercedes somewhat of a headache. The factory in Brackley will need to respond with upgrades of their own to keep up, although they can still be satisfied with their general progress in 2024.
Unlike the front-running teams, the German constructor is not in contention for either Championship this season.
Instead, Mercedes will focus on maximising results this year and establishing a good platform to fight at the front throughout next season.
