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Mercedes is heading into the 2024 F1 season already hobbled with the news of its star driver announcing his departure from the team. The team finished the 2023 season second in the championship but it was no consolation for a squad that dominated the sport for almost a decade.
It was the first season since 2011 that Mercedes had not won a race and even though a P2 finish was an improvement from P3 in 2022, it didn't mean much considering the gap to the front.
Mercedes is heading into 2024 with its stock as low as it has ever been in the last decade and one of the reasons behind that is the loss of Lewis Hamilton from the 2025 season.
The team will have an almost new car for this season with a car concept inspired by Red Bull. Whether that concept yields results or not is a question whose answer will come in due time but what we can surely say is that there is a certain level of anticipation around the team.
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Keeping all of this aside, however, what would be the pre-season target for Mercedes heading into 2024? Let's take a look.
#1 Win races
Having just one win in two years is just poor if you have eight previous titles. The 2023 F1 season was freak at best as only Red Bull won races (except Ferrari nabbing one).
For 2024, Mercedes has to target closing the gap to the front and what that involves is pressuring Red Bull again and again every weekend.
When the team continues to do that, it would prevail once in a while and nab a win or two during a season. With Lewis Hamilton in the last season with the team, there would be an extra incentive to get this done as a farewell to him as the team charts a path to get back to the top.
#2 Show that Mercedes could be competitive in the long term
A bigger realization that Mercedes might have had by now is that the team is clearly lagging behind in quite a few areas when compared with the benchmark Red Bull. A title charge in 2024 might be a step too far but the German team could make substantial progress and get back to winning consistently.
If it can take these steps, then that means the entire group is heading in the right direction. When that is affirmed, the next steps will come easier as the regulations are quite prescriptive in nature.
#3 Beat Ferrari
More than anything else, what team principal Toto Wolff would want to achieve this season with his team is to beat Ferrari in the championship. Losing Lewis Hamilton to the Italian team is not a nice look.
Ferrari has made good progress in 2023 and by the end of the season, the car was probably better than Mercedes. Having said that, the 2024 season sees both teams introduce major changes to the car. At the end of the season, there's nothing more that Wolff would want than securing a win over Ferrari before handing over Lewis Hamilton to the Italian squad.
