Mercedes have now 'realised' why they couldn't give Lewis Hamilton a title-winning car in his last three years

After the 2021 F1 title was snatched from the hands of Lewis Hamilton in controversial fashion, Andrew Shovlin has revealed why Mercedes failed to build a Formula 1 car that was able to give the British driver another chance at glory in the succeeding years.

The seven-time world champion was unable to replicate his previous results at the wheel of a Mercedes F1 car in the years following the 2022 regulation change, with Hamilton having to wait until the 2024 British Grand Prix to secure his first victory in the new ruleset.

The win at Silverstone came 945 days after his feat at the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, as well as coming after the bombshell announcement that Hamilton would leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025.

The Silver Arrows entered the new era of regulations with a drastic approach, unveiling a ‘zero-pod’ concept that removed a crucial element of airflow to the power unit.

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Andrew Shovlin reveals what Mercedes have realised about their F1 car after the 2022 regulation change

After sticking with the radical philosophy for a season and a half, the German constructor opted to return to a more conventional design, which featured sidepods, in hopes of clawing their way back into contention amid Red Bull’s emerging dominance.

However, the team were simply too late, and their fierce rivals had already developed on their 2022 title-winning car to produce one of the most dominant cars that F1 has ever seen in the RB19 as it went on to win 21 out of the 22 races in 2023.

Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, Mercedes director Andrew Shovlin highlighted the regrets that the team had over not giving Hamilton a front-running car from the start of the new regulations.

The engineer revealed, “We realised at some point that in the aerodynamics development that there were many areas that our tools simply did not represent well enough. The flow under the car was, for example, much more complicated than what we had seen before.

“The cars produce, above all, extreme amounts of downforce at the end of the straights. Earlier, there was clearly more downforce in slow corners.

“One could drive the cars higher and softer, because they produced the downforce farther away from the road. The more we learn, the more we look back and get annoyed about why we didn’t think of certain things earlier.”

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Mercedes director hints at why drivers will be ‘glad’ about the new 2026 regulations

Red Bull’s chief designer at the time, Adrian Newey, predicted the issues that would affect Mercedes as well as every other team on the grid.

Porpoising became an issue that drivers hadn’t previously experienced and was caused by the new rules on the underbody of F1 cars, which could produce downforce through ground effect.

Shovlin pointed out how the drivers will be relieved that they won’t be affected by the same phenomenon with F1’s 2026 regulations, adding, “The drivers will be glad next year when they again sit in cars that absorb the bumps somewhat better.

“But also for the engineers, it is an interesting challenge when one must work differently again. The suspension finally does the job for which it was actually intended again.

“It is no longer only there to get an unbelievably large amount of downforce under control.”

Despite downplaying the current rumours, Mercedes are expected to have the best engine in 2026 as they look to replicate their dominance from the last time new power units were introduced into the fold, back in 2014.

The start of the turbo-hybrid era saw the Silver Arrows win a record eight consecutive constructors’ championships with Hamilton at the wheel, alongside Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas.