Quote Originally Posted by Nitrodaze View Post
What are the factors that have led to the slump at Mercedes besides the regulations that they do not seem to ber able to get right after two goes at it?

Two key factors come to mind:-

1. The loss of Nikki Lauda
2. Possible key personnel leaving or defecting to competitors of Mercedes.

For the second point, l wonder if that alone is enough to account for their clear loss of intellectual edge that has seen them lead the grid for many years. They still have the essential core personnel in place. So what else is the issue with Mercedes?
They have lost a few key staff, Fallows to AM for one.. who co-incidently are now doing pretty nicely.

For me a fair chunk of it is also because the RB/Honda and Ferrari PU's have now been up to Mercedes PU performance for the last 2 years..
Throw in the new ground effect regs which they seem to have gone in the wrong direction with... and they can no longer just turn up the wick on the PU's to overcome any aero deficit like they used to be able to do at will, with so much in reserve.

Unfortunately they have stuck to their 'zero' pods concept believing their wind tunnel data and perhaps the Aero Engineers beliefs that they could make it work ... whether that is solely the CFD/aerodynamicists fault or not, cannot be known by us... but as team principle the buck ultimately stops with Toto.

Lewis has also been very vocal that he was not listened to on what was required and direction to go in for the 23 car. All is not rosy for them right now but if it was up to me I'd write off this season if they don't become competitive by Monaco. If they cant make a breakthrough it might make more sense to start running a B car with the whole RB concept at the front developing it early for 24 over the remainder of the season.