Why is Mercedes not performing this year? This is a question that is on everyone’s minds. Everyone, including Red Bull and Ferrari, is curious to know what happened to Mercedes that triggered this performance downfall. Following the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, according to the data calculated, it looks like Mercedes has their work cut out for themselves.

Lewis Hamilton is leaving the team after this season to go to Ferrari and with the way the W15 is performing, it looks like it was the right decision. Mercedes has lost its edge and although George Russell has been fighting for the podium, the 7-time world champion lost to the Ferrari rookie, Oliver Bearman. But that brings the question, how far behind are the Silver Arrows compared to other teams?

Alpine and Williams have the edge over Mercedes

Mercedes is in for another difficult season with unhappy drivers complaining about the W15. Recent reports state that the cars had some issues with the simulation that were not reflecting the aerodynamics of the car correctly, leading to plenty of drag. The resistance from the wind is so bad that at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the W15 was recorded to be slower than both Alpine and Williams on Jeddah Corniche Circuit’s high-speed sections.

The report states that after the Jeddah race, the team noticed that the W15 was slower than the teams during the high-speed straights. This cannot be good news for Toto Wolff, who is currently under a lot of pressure considering Lewis Hamilton will be leaving the team. With Ferrari already in the lead, it’s safe to say that the Briton is moving to a more progressing team compared to the backward movement of Mercedes.

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Caught up in the middle of everything, Toto Wolff has to come up with a plan to change things around for the team. The team that started in 2010 has had a brilliant career in Formula 1 but ever since the budget cuts, the team has faced issues with optimizing their car. This has led them to fall to P4 in the pecking order for the Constructors Championship and that cannot be a good feeling for the Mercedes boss.

What are Toto Wolff’s plans for Melbourne?

Trail and Error is what Mercedes has come down to as Toto Wolff states that the team has yet to identify the problem. The one area where he acknowledges that the team needs to work on is the downforce considering a smaller rear wing.

In a statement to Times Now, Wolff stated, “I think you’ll gain a few tenths or not if you get the set-up right or wrong, but there’s not a massive corridor of performance. It’s more a fundamental thing, that we believe that the speed should be there. We measure the downforce but we don’t find it in lap time.”

It was also recently reported that Mercedes is having issues with their simulator, which is not displaying the same output on the track versus the controlled environment. After mentioning that it has been 2 years since Mercedes lost their game the team principal stated that it’s not due to lack of trying. Concluding the interview, the Mercedes Boss stated, “We are going to come back to Melbourne strong. We are on a mission on this one. And I am 100% sure that we are going to unlock that performance gap.”

With this, Mercedes fans have some hope to see their favorite world champion finish towards the top of the pecking order, and so far, Hamilton is just ahead of substitute driver, Oliver Bearman. Although Lewis Hamilton is struggling with the car, George Russell looks a little more confident in it. With that said, do you think that Lewis Hamilton will display some podium finishes this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Oscar Piastri ‘Frustrated’ with Lewis Hamilton as McLaren’s Lack of Pace Gets Evident at Saudi Arabia