The 2024 Formula 1 season has been a tale of highs and lows for Mercedes, with flashes of brilliance often followed by bouts of disappointment. According to Andrew Shovlin, the team’s trackside engineering director, this rollercoaster ride was the result of falling behind the development curve early in the year as they scrambled to recover from a less-than-ideal start.

Mercedes’ all-new W15 was a bold departure from its predecessor, ditching the narrow sidepod experiment for a more conventional design and switching to a pushrod rear suspension. Radical changes, but radical doesn’t always mean rapid from the get-go. It took time to fully understand the nuances of the new concept before the team could develop it further, a delay that kept them chasing their rivals throughout the season.

"We were often out of sync with our upgrades compared to the top four," Shovlin admitted. "Our big packages came a few races later than theirs. We could have gone earlier, but the updates would have been smaller. Over the season, this meant we weren’t consistently quick enough. We had moments of competitiveness, but when the others brought their upgrades, they moved ahead again."

The season's sluggish start didn’t help. Early on, the W15 was a handful, poorly balanced and inconsistent across different circuits. It took the first seven races to iron out these gremlins, but even once those were resolved, Mercedes found itself locked in a relentless development race with the likes of Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari.

One key weakness Shovlin pointed to was rear tyre overheating, particularly in warmer conditions. The W15 could warm up its tyres faster in colder weather, great for certain tracks but this advantage turned into a nightmare of rapid thermal degradation when the mercury rose. Tracks like Singapore exposed this flaw to punishing effect.

"Rear overheating is an area where we lag behind McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari," Shovlin acknowledged. "We’re focusing on strategies to generate less heat or dissipate it more effectively. It’s a twofold challenge: how do we get less temperature in, and how do we take more out? It’s critical for improving Sunday race pace."

Another Achilles’ heel was ride control, with the W15 struggling on bumpier circuits. Shovlin explained that while Mercedes isn’t wildly off in terms of ride height compared to rivals, the team still has ground to cover in optimising how the car handles uneven surfaces.

"In F1, development is all about solving problems faster than your competition," Shovlin said. "We’ve made progress, but we need to keep pushing. Ride, tyre management, and pure pace, all are on our radar for 2025."

Formula 1 waits for no one, and Mercedes knows it. The challenge isn’t just to fix what’s broken, but to fix it faster than anyone else. Catching up is one thing - staying ahead is a whole different race.