Mercedes enforce top-secret W15 upgrade plan to keep F1 rivals in the dark

Andrew Shovlin has lifted the lid on why Mercedes W15’s ongoing upgrade plan will remain top secret, with the team working “flat out” to bring more performance to their F1 2024 car.

Following an underwhelming start to the season, Mercedes have shown an impressive rate of improvement with the W15 over recent races.

Mercedes W15 to receive new upgrades following F1 2024 breakthrough

After George Russell claimed both the team’s first pole position and podium of F1 2024 in Canada, team-mate Lewis Hamilton equalled Russell’s result in Montreal by finishing third – albeit almost 18 seconds adrift of the race-winning Red Bull of Max Verstappen – at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

A series of upgrades has been cited as the reason for Mercedes’ step forward, with Hamilton telling media including PlanetF1.com in Barcelona that the team are now focusing on making consistent “incremental steps” rather than bringing “big chunks here and there.”

The seven-time World Champion went on to claim the W15 is “getting more and more enjoyable to drive” and feels “more and more like a race car”, with Hamilton hoping further upgrades over the next few races will put Mercedes “properly in range” of Red Bull and McLaren.

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Appearing on Mercedes’ post-Spanish GP Race Debrief show, trackside engineering director Shovlin confirmed the team’s emphasis on “small developments” with “more stuff coming” over the coming weeks.

Yet he stopped short of revealing exactly when Mercedes are hoping to bring upgrades, with the team hoping to prevent their rivals from reacting.

He said: “We’ve got a plan to bring more performance to the car and it’s some of the areas that we’ve been working on recently, just aerodynamic development, mechanical developments, and those are coming through in the next few races.

“We don’t really want to give our competitors an idea of when we’re bringing an update because then they’ll be pushing to try and bring one sooner, but certainly we’ve got more stuff coming.

“We can see that gap getting down and, as it gets smaller, it’s motivating people even more to push to bring small developments.

“And qualifying has been so tight recently, just bringing a few hundredths of a second to a car can see you further up the grid. That gives you an opportunity to finish in better places.

“So we are flat out. I won’t tell you quite what the development plans over the next few races are.”

Shovlin also said that Mercedes “want more” after two consecutive podiums – and he believes the third sprint weekend of F1 2024 in Austria this weekend, where teams have limited practice time, will act as a good barometer of how much “easier” the W15 is to setup at this stage of the season.

He explained: “Great to see both drivers on the podium in the last two events. That’s a sign of the progress that we’ve made with all the hard work back at the factory.

“But we want more, we want to do better than third places. So we’re working hard, but we’ve got plans and we’ve got parts coming and hopefully that will all come to fruition.

“In terms of Austria, it’s a tricky circuit and it’s a sprint race. So with a sprint race, you’ve got one hour to get the car sorted out and set up. Now, with the recent changes we’ve made to the car, it’s an easier thing to work with.

“The drivers have been much happier with the start setups. We’ve had to make less changes. So hopefully that will put us in a good place to start the weekend.

“You’ve then got two sets of qualifying, two separate races, so there’s plenty to contend with.

“And then in Austria, you always get the question of the weather – sometimes it’s really hot, sometimes it’s wet – so there’s plenty to think about.

“But the drivers, the team, they’re all enjoying racing the car that we’ve got now. We’re fighting for the bigger points and we’re excited to get going in Austria.”

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