How ‘season-defining’ Mercedes W15 upgrades could even impact F1 2025 performance
Mercedes driver George Russell.
Martin Brundle has explained that the upgrades Mercedes have in the pipeline “will define the rest of their season and maybe even 2025”, after an under-par start to the year by their standards.
A Sprint podium in China for Lewis Hamilton has been their best result of the season so far, with a P5 for George Russell in Bahrain their high point in a Grand Prix setting.
Martin Brundle: Mercedes upgrades ‘will define the rest of their season’
Russell said in Miami at the weekend that, while the team took a significant change in development direction with the W15 this year, he admitted they “perhaps overcompensated” with how far they went away from their previous concept.
Now the search comes for something of a happy medium as the team look for a way to fight Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren in front of them – and Brundle explained that the upcoming changes to the W15 will set the path for the rest of this year.
But with the rules in Formula 1 remaining stable, he believes they could play something of a role in how the 2025 car looks too.
“Lewis Hamilton had a feisty and fine race to sixth place including a couple of great overtakes, one in particular against the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg which was very brave,” Brundle wrote in his post-Miami Sky Sports column.
“The Mercedes had good speed in the closing stages, but once again both he and George Russell had a weekend of confusing and highly variable pace.
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“Mercedes have some upgrades coming which will define the rest of their season and maybe even 2025, and demonstrate whether or not they can define and fix what is wrong with the car.
“Here’s hoping they do, because the upgraded McLaren looks to be closer to Red Bull, and Ferrari are eagerly looking forward to their imminent upgrades too.”
On the same theme, Aston Martin have fallen away from the front compared to where they were this time last season, and Brundle hopes to see their fortunes turn around – having taken a multitude of podiums through Fernando Alonso by the same stage last year.
“For now, Aston Martin have fallen behind in the development race and we eagerly await their solution too,” he wrote.
“Fernando Alonso could only make ninth place on Sunday and was 37 seconds behind at the flag despite the safety car bunching the pack on lap 28.”