Mercedes reveal origin of Hamilton's struggles in 2024
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Mercedes has shed light on the difficulties Lewis Hamilton faced during the 2024 Formula 1 season, attributing the Briton's struggles to specific driving issues encountered in qualifying.
These problems, compounded by the W15's inherent limitations, left Hamilton consistently trailing his teammate George Russell on Saturdays, even though his race pace remained strong.
Over the 24-race season, which included six sprint events, Russell outqualified Hamilton 24-6.
Although the gap was often just a couple of tenths, in an ultra-competitive grid it proved enough to leave the seven-time world champion lingering down the order, making his Sunday recoveries more challenging.
Mercedes head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin acknowledged that Hamilton's challenges were exacerbated by the W15's performance ceiling and its narrow balance window.
"The car hasn't been quick enough, and that's been the thing that we've been trying to solve," Shovlin explained, quoted by Motorsport.com.
"The car hasn't been easy to get into a nice balance window, and particularly once you get there, keeping it there has been a challenge."
Despite these difficulties, Hamilton's race-day performance remained robust, with Shovlin praising his ability to deliver under the right conditions.
"Beyond all of that, I think you know Lewis has struggled on a single lap. His race pace has been there throughout the weekend," he added.
"But it's just with a close grid, you often start a few places behind your teammate, and then you're held up and you can't show what you can do.
"But the read on Lewis's race pace has been very good. He showed in Las Vegas that if he has a car that works the way he wants, he can fight right back to the front. And we very much saw the old Lewis."
The Role of Oversteer and Braking Sensitivity
Shovlin pointed to specific technical factors that hindered Hamilton during qualifying, particularly when pushing for the final tenths of performance.
"The issue really for him has just been when you are trying to extract that last tenth or two," Shovlin noted. "It's been difficult in terms of trying to avoid brake locking, trying to avoid snaps on exit. It's just those issues."
Mercedes viewed the solution as delivering a car better tailored to Hamilton's driving style, such as the one he excelled with in Las Vegas.
"The way the team looks at that is that we needed to give Lewis a car more like the one we had in Vegas, where it does suit his style, and he can do his best work with it," Shovlin added.
While brake locking has been a challenge for several drivers with F1's current generation of ground-effect machines, Shovlin believes that managing tyre temperatures and car rotation on the throttle is a more critical factor.
"I think these days, a lot of it is keeping heat out of the rear tyres," he said. "If you approach a corner in a way that that means that they're hot, or if you're having to turn the car on the throttle, then you will struggle with that."
Russell vs. Hamilton: A Question of Style
Russell's consistent ability to extract more from the W15 in qualifying hinted at stylistic differences between the two drivers, but Shovlin emphasized there was no clear-cut explanation for the disparity.
"I mean, not really in the style or approach, because Lewis is wise enough to know that if something is working for George, he can adapt his driving to go in that direction," Shovlin said.
"There are things that you can see that ultimately, when they really start pushing, then that's when you start to get the snaps of oversteer on exit. And that, on occasion, is an area that Lewis might suffer more from than George.
"But, as I said, the focus for our year has been, how do we get the car in a way that Lewis needs to allow him to drive it on the limit and not suffer those problems."
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