“The most difficult to drive” - Martin Brundle's worrying Mercedes W15 car verdict

Legendary F1 commentator Martin Brundle believes the Mercedes car is “the most difficult to drive” following his own on track observations.

Mercedes have endured a miserable start to the 2025 F1 season, with a best finish of P5 at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

The recent Australian Grand Prix was another blow as both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell failed to finish the race.

Hamilton was forced out early due to an engine-related issue, while Russell crashed out on the penultimate lap.

Not only is the Mercedes uncompetitive relative to the Red Bull and Ferrari, it looks a nightmare to drive on track, especially in high-speed corners.

Speaking about the Mercedes in Australia, Brundle described the car as “all over the place.”

“When I was out on track on Friday it appeared to me that Lewis Hamilton’s Merc was perhaps the most difficult to drive,” he wrote in his Sky Sports column.

“Through the high-speed chicane which makes up Turns One and Two, the car was all over the place.

“For the third consecutive season, they haven’t hit the sweet spot with this era of ground-effect cars, and then can’t seem to contain the unpredictability of performance thereafter.

“Team boss Toto Wolff always has elegant words and phrases to move the story on and refocus for the next race or season, but it must be wearing very thin for him to see the lack of progress.

“And as often happens in such circumstances, reliability also went out of the window with a bang for Hamilton’s power unit.”

It seems Mercedes have struggled with inconsistency so far in 2024.

As revealed by Hamilton, Mercedes were in fact struggling in slow-speed corners, rather than high-speed like in Jeddah.

“We didn’t look terrible in the high-speed [corners] but we’re slow in the low-speed this weekend, whereas in the last race, we were bad in the high-speed, good in the lower stuff. A real struggle this weekend,” Hamilton explained.