Mercedes F1 has revamped its strategy and team since 2022 to tackle new challenges and regain its leading position in the sport.
Since 2022, Mercedes F1 has undergone significant restructuring to climb back to the top after a challenging start under new regulations. The team has not necessarily worked more, but has had to change its approach to work.
“We would obviously like to be faster,” stated Andrew Shovlin, the team’s trackside engineering director. “However, this situation poses challenges both technically and in terms of development.”
“It’s essential to understand the problem and quickly find solutions to enhance performance. It’s also a challenge for all the factory staff, who work just as hard whether you’re winning or at the back of the grid. The workload doesn’t change.”
Mercedes has managed to reinvent itself and now aims to capitalise on this for 2026: “Keeping everyone motivated and reassuring them that we have a direction to follow to return to winning ways is one of the most important things, but it’s a situation we have to confront.”
“I think we’ve done a good job maximising the lessons from this opportunity. At the same time, we are restructuring the organization to try and equip ourselves with the finest technical team and the best group functions for the future.”
“All we can do is try to make the most of the situation at hand, and the recovery has been good. But I hope we are building on this foundation rather than taking a step back.”
“Who should focus on which car?”
Another challenge has been replacing key personnel who have left the team. This is a critical task for Mercedes, which has had to fill a puzzle without altering the team’s inherent nature.
“Individuals like Loic Serra, who moved to Ferrari, forced us to restructure our vehicle dynamics group. We resorted to internal hiring, but it’s working well; this group is now operational and bringing a lot of ideas to the table.”
“However, we always need to consider how groups function and how we want to manage these various resources. One of the things we’re looking at is that by 2026, we will have a very, very different car, a very, very different power unit from what we have today.”
This is also another challenge that the team is currently facing with two simultaneous projects: “At the same time, we have to develop a car for 2026 and another for 2025. So, we need to decide who should focus on which car.”
“How do we want the groups to be structured to provide the necessary resources for these two distinct projects? When I talk about restructuring, it’s not just about changing someone’s role hoping they’ll simply be better than their predecessor.”
“It’s about reevaluating the entire management of these different functions in light of this future challenge and how we can develop more effectively moving forward.”
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Mercedes F1 Overhauls Structure to Regain Top Form Mercedes F1 Overhauls Structure to Regain Top Form
