Who is nearest to Red Bull; Mercedes, Ferrari or McLaren?

By Joe Murphy

Over the past 24 hours or so, three major constructors have showcased their F1 challengers for this season, to the works. Mercedes have switched between black and silver liveries in recent years but now, they have combined the two for this campaign. The team, used to being some dominant in the hybrid era, have taken one sole victory in the last two seasons combined, with George Russell’s first and only win to date, taking place in Brazil.

The huge aim for the team is to get back to winning ways again. Last season saw unreliability and slowness, something we hadn’t seen from a Mercedes before. “A big focus has been on improving the previous car’s unpredictable rear axle,” James Allison, the team’s technical director, said. “We have worked hard to ensure that both axles, but particularly the rear axle, retain better control of the tyre than on the W14. There’s also been some housekeeping on areas in which we had room for improvement, including the DRS effect, and pit stop performance.”

Meanwhile, Ferrari’s new car is traditional red, with white, black and yellow streaks. but . They have veered away from tradition to an extent with the car mechanics carbon fibre levels.

Whether it will be any quicker than last year’s car remains to be seen. That has to be the aim to challenge Red Bull. Technical director Enrico Cardile said that “every area of the car has been redesigned” and that they wanted to “create a completely new platform” with the SF-24.

And finally, McLaren haee revealed their actual car for the year, a few weeks after showing off a livery for the year. It is crucial for McLaren to challenge this year as you feel like they may not get a better chance. Moreover, if they want to keep their talented drivers, then starting to get some wins, is a must. Team Principal Andrea Stella has reiterated this desire and beleievs the team are nearly there in terms of World Championship challengers: “We now have everything in place from an infrastructure, people and culture perspective so we continue to push forward and build on the work done to get us back to front of the grid.”

Only a few weeks now until the first lights out of the season!