Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will drive an all-black car, forced in part by a car concept that follows the extreme line of its predecessor
With the entry into force of the new technical regulations, Formula 1 has put forward three possible development paths. They work undeniably, as is the case at Red Bull. Another one too, but the chaos at Ferrari itself causes them to boycott themselves. And then there is the Mercedes alternative.
The fiasco of 2022 hurts them a lot. Although they knew how to fix it, the commitment to a car with practically no sidepods caused them a lot of trouble with the ‘porpoises’ last season, although they fixed it. Not without suffering, they eventually became a team so on the rise that they seriously jeopardized the Scuderia’s second place as the main pursuers of Verstappen and his company. That’s why there was a lot of anticipation for this W14, the heir to the German team’s first non-championship car. And it hasn’t disappointed… much.
In a car with continuous lines, like all cars (except the Aston Martin), the big surprise was the black color. Romantic issues aside, such as the fact that this was the tone of the last Brackley-winning car, the rationale for this choice is purely useful: it saves weight. The technical limitations have made the paintwork a real problem for the engineers, so at Mercedes they’ve decided to pretty much leave the polished carbon fiber and that’s it. The model shown in the presentation was still lightly painted to make it look better in the photos and in the live broadcast, but what was seen later in the premiere of the small job already ruled it out.
It was seen coming. Last year some cars already had to polish their paint until it was minimized or completely eliminated, in the case of Williams, so the ‘no’ to increase the weight limit in this 2023, as requested by several teams, would force us to see trims of this type. It’s not a new tone for Mercedes, but in the past it had a very different motivation, as Toto Wolff himself has confirmed.
“In 2020, the most important factor of the black car was supporting the cause of equality that we always carry in our hearts. The color black became part of our DNA. But last year the car was too heavy. And we’ve been trying to figure out where to squeeze every ounce. The car has some parts made of raw carbon, and others are painted matte black.” The removal of the red star in honor of Niki Lauda is already explained worse.
If Mercedes managed to turn the tables in 2022 and move from a spot on the podium to a contender for victory in the last few races, it was partly due to the fact that they knew how to overcome their problems with the rebound. The ‘posing’ was a real nightmare for almost all teams, but especially for them. Therefore, in the car shown, they keep a mixed idea.
It’s not a car without sidepods, which was the extreme decision they wanted to develop, but the W14 doesn’t have those of its predecessor. The intermediate path that culminated in Brazil with the double that marked George Russell’s first win for the team enabled a step forward on which his 2023 project now continues. “We tried to keep all the benefits of the W13 and address the weaknesses,” summarized Mike Elliot, the technical director. “Last year, once we knew what to do, it took a huge amount of work to move forward. Towards the end of the season you saw the performance improve and in the winter it started again. We did everything we wanted to do with W13 last year, but we couldn’t go further due to limited resources or our focus was elsewhere to solve other problems,” the engineer admitted.
These components are summarized in the reduction of the overall weight, the adaptation to the aerodynamic characteristics and proposals to optimize your driving. For example, they completely changed the geometry of the front suspension, in line with refining the design as much as possible in order to adapt it to the maximum. “When you look at the W14, you see the DNA of the W13, but also a lot of evolution and detail improvements,” Elliot summarizes.
With these statements, Hamilton and Russell want to confirm what they put on the table at the end of 2022: they are just as likely as the rest to win. Both the veteran seven-time champion, who is looking for a breakthrough to clinch his eighth (and final?) world title, and his promising young team-mate are very pleased with the development of the new car. Now they will have to bring those sensations to the track.
There comes a time in every athlete’s life when being tied to the same team for long periods of time can be counterproductive. In the case of Formula 1, all the more, as much as they depend on whether the car made by the technicians wins enough. For this reason, Lewis Hamilton has signed short extensions in recent seasons. The W14 is to this day the last F1 to drive the most successful driver of all time. Hamilton is out of contract for 2024, so asking Toto Wolff if he has his biggest star right and right was a mandatory question. “We have had an initial conversation. But I don’t want to commit to a deadline, because it’s not important to him or to us at this stage. We have a year ahead of us and we are going to find the right time,” said the head of Mercedes. Hamilton is celebrating his eleventh season in the team of the silver arrows (black in this 2023), but age is no small fact. The Briton is 38 years old, and while inspired by the likes of Tom Brady, who has just announced his final retirement at age 45, he knows he can’t go on forever, yet Wolff believes “age doesn’t play any role” in the negotiations.”This will be a journey that will continue,” concludes Wolff.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
