Mercedes have made a bold change to the W15 ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend.
Mercedes have announced a one-off livery for the Singapore Grand Prix to celebrate title sponsor Petronas’ 50th birthday. This reveal follows news that Red Bull have cancelled their own special design for Sunday’s race due to weight concerns with the RB20.
The Silver Arrows have swapped the silver on the nose and sidepods of the W15 for the iconic Petronas ‘emerald green’ for a refreshing twist on their 2024 design. “The livery looks incredible,” said Lewis Hamilton after the announcement.
“I can’t wait to see it on the car in the garage tomorrow and then to get behind the wheel on Friday. I am sure the fans will love seeing it up close and it will shine brightly under the lights of Singapore.”
Toto Wolff will now hope that the new livery brings better fortunes after a difficult weekend in Baku. The Brackley-based outfit were battling Red Bull for the title of the third-fastest team around the streets of Azerbaijan with McLaren and Ferrari a step ahead of their rivals.
George Russell undermining his way to the podium after getting two places due to the Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz collision on the penultimate lap, but Hamilton could only manage P9 behind both Williams after starting from the pit lane.
Of course, for the Mercedes duo, these changes will be beneficial in Singapore, whereas for Max Verstappen and Red Bull, which have not won anything for seven races, they will lose ground not only to Charles Leclerc, but also to Lando Norris and McLaren in the championship races.
The Milton Keynes based team have gone to extreme measures before what should possibly be the most challenging Grand Prix weekend of the season; the team has had to drop a fan painted car design for the next two car races because the additional weight may prove to be too prohibitive.
In a statement released on Tuesday, they explained: “Regrettably, as we began the testing of what some REBL CUSTMS designs could look like when put into real life on the RB20, we discovered that the paint used in making complete car takeover stripes and liveries for the RB20 added extra and unwanted heaviness to the body of the RB20.”
I am sure that you can imagine, but any additional weight degrades the performance, and the team are still working hard on trying to make this car as competitive as possible for the rest of the year 2024.
Therefore, allow the team to inform you that the team has rejected to accompany the REBL CUSTMS livery on the RB20 for Singapore and United States GPs. ”
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