Paddy Lowe: Raising our level

Dominant last year, the W05 Hybrid nevertheless played some bad tricks on its drivers, notably during the season finale for Nico Rosberg. An aspect that Mercedes reworked for its W06 Hybrid.

“It’s no secret that reliability let us down a number of times in 2014, admits Paddy Lowe, the Executive Director in charge of technology. We know we have to raise our level. No matter how on track things appear to be, there is no scenario where you can afford to miss out. Making a reliable car is a long job and a lot of effort has been made in this area. It's not about solving specific problems, but about improving quality across the thousands of parts and processes involved. »

However, the performance was not forgotten for the world champion team, which had a significant margin over the competition in 2014. “Compared to last winter, regulations remained relatively stable, continues Lowe. But we cannot say that the cars we will see on track at Jerez will be near-replicas of their predecessors. The hybrid era is still in its early stages, and there is plenty of room for innovation. The challenge at this stage is to find key areas for performance gain not only based on what we learned last year, but also areas where there is room to explore new and innovative sources of advantage[?] We need to make sure we're going in the right direction. One of the risks with the development of the car is that steps forward can easily turn into steps backwards. You have to take risks to progress, but those risks must be managed carefully in order to produce a car that is better than its predecessor. This has been an underlying theme for the team over the winter. »

Nico Rosberg took to the track this Sunday in Jerez, for the first winter tests of the year, to follow live on our website. Photos of the W06 Hybrid can be viewed here.