Red Bull has been the team to beat over the past two seasons, setting new benchmarks in proficiency thanks largely to the design prowess of Adrian Newey. When the Milton Keynes-based outfit’s development driver Jake Dennis tried out their challenger ahead of the upcoming season, the ‘extremely fast car’ seemed to suggest yet another masterclass from Newey’s team.
However, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff appears to have given his own fans the confidence to expect a turnaround from the Silver Arrows.
Mercedes also got its simulator driver Anthony Davidson to try out their new W15 and Wolff was left gushing after receiving feedback from him.
“He was driving Melbourne [in the sim], and he said: ‘The car feels like a car for the first time in two years,” Wolff said.
“Obviously, I would love this to correlate to the track but we’ve seen in the last two years that this was not always the case.”
Although Mercedes completely dominated the turbo-hybrid era, they have fallen woefully short of the mark in the last two years after changes to the technical regulations. With Mercedes getting its design concept all wrong, the team has seen the likes of Aston Martin perform better despite providing their own engines to them.
While Wolff has got positive feedback from simulator tests in the past as well, the fact that Mercedes has developed its W15 almost from scratch will lend the Austrian boss some confidence that they are on the right track.
Can Mercedes finally challenge Red Bull?
There was some pressure on Wolff based on the team’s lack of consistency over the past two seasons, but those in the Mercedes hierarchy seem to believe he is still the right man to carry them forward, offering the 52-year-old a three-year contract extension.
It signals a belief in the Silverstone-based outfit of its belief that Wolff can find a way to get them back to the front of the pack and while this may not necessarily be the season they will achieve these goals, it appears like they are on the right track.
Mercedes star driver Lewis Hamilton is also in the twilight of his career and any chances of him adding to his seven world championships will depend largely on the car Mercedes offers him. While signing his contract deal, Wolff suggested that a big part of it was down to his desire to ‘beat Red Bull with Hamilton’. This would seem to suggest that the Mercedes boss has belief that a turnaround in fortunes is likely sooner rather than later.
Do you think the Mercedes W15 will be able to challenger Red Bull’s challenger? Let us know in the comments.