Ex-Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle admits Mercedes are “clearly not the force they were” during their dominant period, insisting that 2024 will be a “big year” for the marque.
Despite clinching second place in the Constructors’ Championship, Mercedes lagged a considerable 454 points behind Red Bull and ended the year without a single win.
The Brackley-based camp was hamstrung from the outset by its decision to retain the ‘zeropod’ concept that it launched during the first year of the current technical regulations.
Mercedes’ struggles are a stark contrast to the period between 2014-21 when it proved to be an unstoppable force that completed a sweep of eight straight Constructors’ titles.
But amid the side’s fall from grace, Brundle believes Mercedes’ once impenetrable operation has been negatively impacted by rival teams poaching away its personnel.
“I think there’s no doubt about it, Mercedes quite clearly are not the force they were,” Brundle wrote in a column for Sky F1.
“Because they didn’t get the 2022 car right and they didn’t fix it for 2023.
“And there has been a lot of personnel movement because they’re obviously very attractive people from the era of total domination that they had.
“You see it in other sports, where a group of people seemingly just couldn’t lose, and then all of a sudden, they can’t win. It’s really odd, and all it needs is a couple or three pieces of the jigsaw puzzle changing one way or the other.”
Mercedes responded to its ongoing troubles by returning James Allison to the position of Technical Director in place of Mike Elliott, who later elected to resign from the team.
With Allison spearheading the German marque’s pursuit of a revised car concept for 2024, Brundle has cautioned that Mercedes must ensure it gets things right next season.
“It’s a mighty team,” Brundle added. “But they’ve got to align their stars again, and 2024 is a big year for Mercedes.”
Reflecting on the past campaign in Abu Dhabi, Allison underlined his belief in the Mercedes team as it bids to close down Red Bull and mount a title challenge in 2024.
“Considering where the car we launched [was], P2 was the absolute upper bound of what the team could achieve and we did a good job of getting there,” he told Sky F1.
“That does actually feel surprisingly good, albeit slightly in conflict with our desire to be, unequivocally, the best team.
“But we have lots of assets – the team itself is full of very strong engineers, an operation that will be the envy of many. Notwithstanding a few mistakes that we made here and there during the year!
“And a driver line-up that I think all teams would look at with an envious eye. We’ve got, in one of our drivers, arguably the most successful person who’s ever sat behind the wheel of a racing car [Lewis Hamilton] and, in the other one, a very, very promising younger man in George Russell.
“So yeah, we’re a very fortunate team. We need to make that good fortune count next year, and hopefully take it one better than P2.”
