'Mercedes will take a lot more victories in 2024' says ex-World Champion
F1 News
Before the start of the 2024 Formula 1 season, many would have predicted that Mercedes would not stand on the top step of the podium in any races. However, the German team have turned a corner and found some unexpected and much-improved pace which has led to them winning two races in a row at the Austrian and British Grand Prix.
It has been a huge turnaround for Toto Wolff's team after only winning one race in 2022 and none in 2023. Since missing out on the 2021 Drivers' Championship with Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes have struggled with the new rule change and their car design, forcing them away from the front of the grid.
However, some recent improvements and upgrades have sparked the W15 into life in 2024, highlighted by the pole position taken by George Russell at the Canadian Grand Prix. Since then, Russell took victory at the Austrian Grand Prix, and Hamilton added a ninth win at Silverstone to make it back-to-back wins for the German team.
Mercedes 'have made some gains' to redefine their season
With Mercedes now finding this fantastic form on track and trending upward like McLaren, there is potential to add more wins in 2024 over Red Bull and Ferrari who are struggling to improve as the season continues. Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast, former World Champion Damon Hill sees this upward trajectory for Mercedes and believes there is more to come for the German team.
"They have made gains and Red Bull are not able to make gains," said the Brit. "They may have hit the ceiling, and so for this last half of this season, I think there's going to be a lot of victories out there on the table for the taking either by Mercedes or McLaren, or even Ferrari."
But what is the reason for this sudden change in fortune for Mercedes? Hill explains: "They got a reset after Silverstone. All the teams have had their allocations reset because of their positions in the previous championship and the constructors. So the amount of wind tunnel time, for example, for teams to improve has increased. Now it's been reset because they were second in the championship last year. Now they're fourth behind Ferrari, so they've got a lot of headroom between now and the end of the season."