Mercedes F1: Odds, drivers, team principal & history

Mercedes pipped Ferrari to second place in last year’s F1 World Constructors’ Championship but they will be hoping to close the gap on Red Bull Racing in 2024, in what will be Lewis Hamilton’s final year with the team.

Team Principal	Toto Wolff
Headquarters	Brackley, East Midlands
Driver pairing	Lewis Hamilton & George Russell
Last season’s finish	2nd

Mercedes were dealt a huge blow as Hamilton agreed a move to Ferrari for the 2025 season but, after losing the World Constructors’ Championship by over 450 points last season, all focus now will be on trying to sign off one of the sport’s most successful partnerships on a positive note.

We’ve taken a look at Mercedes-Benz’s chances of doing just that in the upcoming 2024 F1 season…

Mercedes 2024 odds

To win the World Constructors’ Championship	17/2
To win without Red Bull	9/4
To beat McLaren	11/10
To beat Ferrari	5/6

Key Dates

Opening race	Bahrain Grand Prix, 2nd March
Home race	British Grand Prix, 7th July
Final Race	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, 8th December

Team Principal - Toto Wolff

Joined	January 2013
Date of birth	12th January 1972
Nationality	Austrian

Mercedes F1 Drivers

Lewis Hamilton

Joined	2013
Date of birth	7th January 1985
Nationality	British
Race wins	103
World Drivers’ Championships	7

Lewis Hamilton is the joint-most successful driver in F1 history and much of his success has come with the Mercedes-Benz team. He has won six of his seven World Drivers’ Championships and 82 of his 103 Grand Prix victories with the Silver Arrows.

He joined the team in 2013 after a successful stint with McLaren but 2024 will be his final year with the team after it was announced he will drive for Ferrari in 2025.

George Russell

Joined	2022
Date of birth	15th February 1998
Nationality	British
Race wins	1
World Drivers’ Championships	0

2024 will be George Russell’s third year with the Mercedes-Benz team after he replaced Valtteri Bottas in 2022. He has achieved one race win and 11 podiums across a five-year Formula One career which began at Williams Racing in 2019, with 10 of those 11 podiums being earned with the Silver Arrows.

Last Season’s Performance

After a record eight-successive World Constructors’ Championships, the 2022 regulation overhaul left Mercedes in the dust of the all-conquering Red Bull and their rivals’ dominance only intensified during the 2023 campaign.

The Silver Arrows pipped Ferrari to second place by just three points in a battle that went all the way to the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, but they finished with fewer than half the points of runaway winners Red Bull by the time the chequered flag came down at the Yas Marina Circuit.

They failed to win a single race for the first time since Lewis Hamilton’s debut season with the team in 2013 and they managed just eight podiums across the 22 races.

While it was a disappointing season on the whole, there are some positives Toto Wolff and his team can take from 2023.

The radical zero-pod design introduced at the start of the so-called ground effect era in 2022 was finally abandoned after the team failed to realise its potential, while Technical Director Mike Elliot was replaced with James Allison in April.

This Season’s prospects

At odds of 17/2 to win the 2024 F1 World Constructors’ Championship, it is clear Mercedes have a lot of catching up to do if they are to dethrone Red Bull, but the Silver Arrows are expected to be in the mix in the fight for second place.

They are joint-third favourites alongside Lewis Hamilton’s future team Ferrari for the World Constructors’ Championship and second-favourites McLaren are 11/10 to win the title without Red Bull.

Hamilton’s decision to sign for Ferrari in 2025 could offer a key insight into the Brackley-based team’s chances, though.

As his career draws to a close and he searches for a record-breaking eighth World Drivers’ Championship, it seems unlikely that the 39-year-old would leave Mercedes if he thought they had any chance of competing at the top in the next couple of years.

Instead, the iconic driver has taken a gamble and jumped ship and that does not bode well for Mercedes, who will be preoccupied for at least a little of the 2024 season searching for a suitable replacement for the perhaps irreplaceable Hamilton.

Last Five Seasons

Year	Constructors championship	Drivers Championship
2019	1st, 739 points	Lewis Hamilton 1st, 413 points Valtteri Bottas 2nd, 326 points
2020	1st, 573 points	Lewis Hamilton 1st, 347 points Valtteri Bottas 2nd, 223 points
2021	1st, 613.5 points	Lewis Hamilton 2nd, 387.5 points Valtteri Bottas 3rd, 226 points
2022	3rd, 515 points	George Russell 4th, 275 points Lewis Hamilton 6th, 240 points
2023	2nd, 409 points	Lewis Hamilton 3rd, 234 points George Russell 8th, 175 points