New car for Hamilton: this is the ‘B’ version in which he wants to improve

One of the big doubts that will be revealed this Saturday in Monaco is that of Mercedes. Will he join the battle for pole position? The star-studded team started the weekend in the Principality with 6th place for Hamilton, at 0.498, and 12th for Russell in an important test day for the star-studded team. Mercedes premiered a half-new car this Friday with a large package of improvements in which the stars pursued the main goal of having a more predictable car and, above all, a more intuitive one than the first version of W14 that he Failed at this beginning of the course.

Changes in the car are important to the eye: It has new rear suspension, more Aston Martin-style front suspension, they ditched their ‘zero sidepods’ concept using dropped sidepods similar to Red Bull and sunken sidepods like Aston Martin or Ferrari to channel air and increase payload. they built a new engine cover and new cut on floor sides. Wolff already said a few months ago that he would not be ashamed if his car looked like Red Bull or another rival. A clear warning of what is to come.

Comparison:

Mercedes, Red Bull-style sides

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Aston Martin style suspensions

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Side air inlets

4

top view

Change of philosophy and ‘hello’ to pontoons

Mercedes opted in 2022 for a very risky concept, the only team that interpreted the new regulation with an idea as innovative and unexpected because of the subsequent failure: a car with almost no sidepod. They started 2022 with many problems, but they completed the course with great progress and were very competitive on certain tracks, such as in Brazil, where George Russell achieved the only victory for those from Brackley all year. That improvement has been a bad partner for Mercedes. Their sidepod-less concept made them confident. They saw a greater chance of success than completely changing their car, something that could mean losing a year of progress compared to rivals like Red Bull or Ferrari. And they decided to keep insisting.

But the reality check is great. Mercedes was only able to take a step forward in 2023: remove the bounce from last year’s car. The others, everything became a problem. The main one, according to Toto Wolff, the impossibility of understanding the reasons for the contractions suffered by the car and how to solve them. They changed what they replaced, the car didn’t respond.

From the first date in Bahrain they knew they had to throw away the basic concept and change their philosophy. Toto Wolff announced a revolution, a revision of every part of the car and a brand new car for Imolaalthough he later warned that the new package is not something magical, but it will serve them to have a more understandable basis to continue to improve in their fight to get closer to the best.

The Italian appointment was canceled and Mercedes decided to go ahead with their plan. They brought improvements to Monaco even though the track was not the best for testing new components or drawing conclusions from them.

Positive feelings at the beginning

And after the first day of testing, the conclusions were positive. “At least the update doesn’t make the car worse than before and it’s a good sign for Monaco. The car doesn’t do anything we don’t like.” commented Toto Wolff.

“We used two different setups in FP2 and now we found something that goes in George’s direction as well,” he said of Russell’s 12th place, making it clear that this Saturday he must move up.

“I think we got a lot of data. This is not the place to test an update, but in general the car felt,” said Lewis Hamilton. “We really noticed the improvements. We just have to keep working at it, see if we can get more juice out of the car,” he said ahead of Saturday. “We’ll put our heads together and try to figure out what we can do with what we have . But I hope it gives us a platform to work and move forward”, added the 7-time champion. Hamilton now has half a new car. This should be a turning point for Mercedes.