Brundle sees weakened Mercedes: 'They've lost a lot of top people'

Former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle says Mercedes are "clearly no longer the force it once was", referring to the team's dominant period led by Toto Wolff. He argues that 2024 will be a crucial year for the German racing stable.

Brundle sees weakened Mercedes

Despite finishing second in the constructors' championship, Mercedes remained 454 points behind Red Bull Racing and Lewis Hamilton and George Russell failed to win a race in the 2023 F1 season. The team seemed to suffer from the decision to stick with the zeropod concept of the W13, which caused Mercedes so many problems in 2022.

The past two years are in stark contrast to the team's dominant period since the introduction of the hybrid era, Brundle also sees. "I think there's no doubt about it, Mercedes quite clearly are not the force they were, because they didn't get the 2022 car right and they didn't fix it for 2023," the analyst said in a Q&A session on Sky Sports.

"And there has been a lot of personnel movement because they're obviously very attractive people from the era of total domination that they had," he continued. "You see it in other sports, where a group of people seemingly just couldn't lose, and then all of a sudden, they can't win. It's a mighty team, but they've got to align their stars again, and 2024 is a big year for Mercedes."