Guenther Steiner feels Mercedes “underperformed” in F1 2024 and would not attempt to deny his claim.

Steiner’s assessment comes after Mercedes finished P4 in the F1 2024 Constructors’ Championship standings, while Mercedes engine customer McLaren surged to their first Constructors’ Championship triumph since 1998, seeing off Ferrari by 14 points.

Guenther Steiner tells Mercedes: ‘Shouldn’t be proud’

While Mercedes collected a very respectable four grand prix victories across the season, plus a further five podium results, the Silver Arrows were forced to settle for a P4 finish in the standings, 198 points down on McLaren who claimed the title.

McLaren returned to Mercedes power in 2021 and the alliance will continue until at least the end of 2030 after a recent multi-year extension.

But, while the partnership is paying off handsomely for McLaren, former Haas F1 team boss Steiner believes that for Mercedes, seeing their customer team win the title should be a bitter pill to swallow.

Mercedes last won the Constructors’ title in 2021, that their final in a record-breaking streak of eight consecutive Constructors’ Championship wins.

“I think Mercedes underperformed,” claimed Steiner on the Red Flags Podcast. “Obviously, because McLaren, with the same engine, did better. And I think Mercedes would admit to that.

“It was a long time that somebody with a customer engine won the World Championship, but they just did a good job. And I think the regulations helped, being stable for so long, because then, you know your engine package every year, and the engine being frozen, that helps a lot, that the engine doesn’t change.

“And you adapt your next year’s car always what you’ve got, and if you know what you’ve got well in advance, that helps you.

“So I think there was a few elements which helped them, but it’s still not easy to do if you’re not a producer of a power unit.”

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Therefore, Steiner believes there should be feelings of jubilation at McLaren versus disappointment at Mercedes after the F1 2024 campaign.

“McLaren can feel great and Mercedes shouldn’t be proud of it what they did,” Steiner concluded.

While McLaren will retain the same driver pairing of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for F1 2025, at Mercedes, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli steps up from Formula 2 to partner George Russell – following Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari – making it a homegrown Mercedes line-up with both Antonelli and Russell graduates of their Junior Team.

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