Mercedes will use Lewis Hamilton’s final three races to test ideas for 2025, focusing on car development and data gathering.
Lewis Hamilton has struggled to get the best from his W15. His performance was especially disappointing recently, with the Brazilian GP particularly disappointing.
The main issue seems to be the car’s lack of pace, particularly in qualifying and at high-speed tracks.
Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin confirmed that the team will use the final three races of the 2024 season to test new ideas.
Lewis Hamilton, set to move to Ferrari next season, admitted earlier that he wants to end this season on a strong note. However, the circumstances have not favored the Briton except for one-off races such as the British GP and Belgian GP.
Instead of improving his car to let him perform better, engineer Andrew Shovlin expressed different plans for the final three races. He stated that their focus remains on learning and gathering more data on what’s not working.
The big focus in these remaining races for us is learning what we can. We are in a position in the championship where we cannot challenge in front of us. Our focus has very much shifted to learning what we need to this year to apply to next year in order to get on top of those issues.
Andrew Shovlin stated
The recent race at Interlagos brought out the track’s bumpy nature even more, making things much harder for Lewis Hamilton, who called it one of the worst races ever in his F1 career.
In Brazil, it was useful having that wet running because you want to get a read on the car in the wet . We are going to be looking at all the remaining tracks to assess performance and just confirm what we understand about this car and whether the changes we are hoping to make for next year are going to improve those areas.
Andrew Shovlin added
Lewis Hamilton admits he ‘still has faith’ in Mercedes ahead of his Ferrari move
Lewis Hamilton has faced a tough season, even after ending his 945-day winless streak. Despite his hopes to close out his 11-year Mercedes career on a high note, things haven’t gone his way.
Even as he shifts his focus to Ferrari next season, Hamilton insists that he still loves Mercedes. The Brit added that will always have faith in the team irrespective of which team he drives for in the future.
We’re still in love. I haven’t lost faith in the team. I’m just leaving for myself.
Lewis Hamilton expressed
The 2024 campaign is down to its final three races before the 39-year-old moves to the Italian team. So far, the Briton has won two races while his teammate George Russell has won one.
