Toto Wplff and Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes would prefer to forget the double DNF result from the Australian Grand Prix as quickly as possible. Prior to this race, the Silver Arrows had a lot of optimism, but it all went wrong for them. The team’s attempt to play about a little too much with the W15 settings was one of the primary causes. Toto Wolff acknowledged the same thing. After the race, Lewis Hamilton expressed his dissatisfaction, saying that this has been his poorest season start to date. Wolff believes that further testing is necessary to determine the best course for the all-new 2024 vehicle, but Hamilton is the one doing the majority of the testing.
Wolff stated in an interview with Fox Sports Australia that “we are probably going to need to experiment every single race, not only on Friday because our performance seems to get worse throughout the weekend.”
Wolff acknowledged that they had tried with various configurations on both cars during Friday’s FP2. He stated, “[We’ve] gone through a really quite dramatic set-up change on Lewis’ [car], and that has massively backfired,” according to RaceFans.
However, George Russell’s W15 went well, despite the 26-year-old’s lackluster performance as well. Mercedes is presumably attempting too many things at once when it comes to fine-tuning the vehicle to find the perfect configuration. Both drivers have acknowledged that as a result, they are unable to focus on a certain direction and bring the car in the proper window.
With Mercedes struggling, is Lewis Hamilton going to turn his attention to Ferrari sooner?
Mercedes appears to have fallen short of expectations with the new ground-effect vehicles in 2024 for the third straight season. Naturally, Lewis Hamilton finds the performance gap frustrating. But will he now turn his attention to Ferrari, because this is his final season with the Silver Arrows?
The seven-time champion doesn’t appear to be someone who should give up and stop trying. Additionally, it is quite unlikely that he will wish to end his affiliation with Mercedes earlier than is appropriate given that he has been involved with the company for more than ten years.
However, a lot will probably depend on how much Mercedes can improve in the 2024 season and how badly they make a mistake. The Britishman will probably want Ferrari to succeed and position themselves well for the upcoming season.
However, he would also like to leave Mercedes on a positive note. Right now, that appears highly improbable. In light of this, Hamilton might consider his Ferrari future more and decide to forgo this season if Mercedes doesn’t make much progress.
