Former F1 car designer flags concern around Mercedes for 2024 F1 season

Former F1 car designer Gary Anderson has that he's unsure of Mercedes's direction regarding their car heading into the 2024 season.

Since the start of the ground-effect cars, the former world champions have struggled to develop a competitive car to challenge their rivals Red Bull for a title run. They have only managed three pole positions and a race win in almost two seasons since the introduction of the new regulations.

In his column for the Telegraph, former Jordan technical director Gary Anderson said that Mercedes are "yo-yoing" more than any top team in the past:

“Mercedes are probably in as tough a position as I have seen any top team in. It is not a matter of just getting more downforce in the car to go faster. When they do that, they actually probably get worse. They have a tough task and it will be a clean sheet of paper they need (for 2024) because they have not shown yet that they know exactly which direction to go in.

“Mercedes looks around and sees Red Bull starting the season strong and ending the season strong. McLaren started the season weak but is ending the season very strong. Mercedes have never shown that. They are a yo-yo. They could be on the front row one weekend and not get into the top 10 the next weekend.”

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Mercedes director on grim fate in Brazil

Mercedes' head of trackside performance Riccardo Musconi said that although the long run pace in Brazil In the only Free Practice session is assuring, the "alarm bells" have rung after their dismal showing in the Sprint Race on Saturday.

As per Autosport, Musconi said:

"The long-run pace we showed in free practice was quite reassuring. We didn’t think that we needed to change the car around, so we went into qualifying, and the results were around the third row. In a way, we were not pleased with it, and we felt the car deserved more.”

"The alarm bells went out during the sprint race because after the encouraging first two laps, the degradation of our car was quite high, mainly coming from the rear axle. At that stage we worried about our performance on the Sunday.

The German team have to sort out their inconsistent performances to have a chance of challenging for the world championships next season before the next significant regulation changes.