Why new F1 W15 shows Mercedes keeps doing things its own way

This is proven once again by some of the design choices it has made with its latest challenger, the W15.

That’s not to say Mercedes hasn’t taken notice of trends that have emerged over the past two seasons, or that it has clung to the zeropod route for a third year running. But rather than copy and paste the inlet design from the Red Bull RB19, as many others have, Mercedes has taken a different approach, likely learning some big lessons from the B-Spec configuration of the W14.

The first notable absentee in this arrangement when compared with last season’s design is upper side-impact spar (SIS) fairing, which in previous iterations had been flung forward of the sidepod and inlet to serve its own aerodynamic purpose.

In compliance with this, the cockpit also sat forward relative to the position of its rivals’ designs and closer to the front axle, something that Lewis Hamilton was highly vocal about, given some undesirable traits it caused.

Mercedes has set about rectifying this for 2024, moving the cockpit back by around 100mm which has obviously resulted in other changes made to chassis and fuel tank. But it does come with the advantage of the lower forward section of the chassis being narrower where it meets with the floor, increasing the available volume in the forward portion of the underfloor.

As part of the overhaul, the team has chosen to employ a P-shaped sidepod inlet, which reaches forward in the lowermost section, while providing ample room in the undercut section for air to migrate to the rear of the car, as it has been extended rearwards to the reach the downsloping section at the rear of the bodywork.

Mercedes W15 sidepods & floor

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

The floor’s edge, which is exposed more by the undercut, and the edge wing shown is like the one used in the closing stages of 2023. That’s not to say there won’t be more development here in the coming weeks/months though, as teams seemed to focus their attention here last season in conjunction with any changes being made to the underfloor.

The downsloping sidepod bodywork is not only wide in the upper half, it retains the gentle waterslide solution we saw introduced with the B-Spec arrangement in 2023, albeit modified to suit its new surroundings. This includes a revised layout for the engine cover outcropping, which no longer features the…