F1: Mercedes ‘heavily focused’ on 2024 car now

(GMM) Mercedes has followed hot on Ferrari’s heels by admitting the focus has now shifted to 2024 after getting embarrassed by Red Bull.

Red Bull is utterly dominating this year, prompting Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur to now admit that it is the 2024 car – not the current one – that is now in the wind tunnel.

Mercedes’ chief technical officer Mike Elliot agrees with that approach.

“Our aim is to win championships,” he said. “Unfortunately, we are not in that position this year.

“But we want to be next year. We’ve got to get that balance right between getting all the learnings we can with our current car and trying to put most of our effort into next year’s car.”

Technical director James Allison, who took over from Elliot in that role this year, added: “At this stage of the year, the wind tunnel is heavily focused on 2024.

“Large chunks of the drawing office, vehicle dynamics, manufacturing for long-lead time production items are starting to gather their skirts,” he said.

“From the summer break onwards, next year’s car is where the largest call is answered. But that also gives opportunities for this (2023) car too.”

As for team boss Toto Wolff, he is declaring simply that “The sails are set for 2024 now”.

“We still have some updates to come with W14, but I find focus switching to next year good because there is so much we can optimize on the current car without looking too much into upgrades.”