(Motorsport) Formula 1 team Mercedes will finally implement long awaited upgrades to their W14 car at this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows understood early in the season that their 2023 car had an error with the design concept from the previous year, which was also implemented in the W14. There was hope that there remained untapped potential in the ‘zero-sidepod’ look from the W13 model but with Red Bull’s dominance, Mercedes decided to scrap the idea altogether.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said early on in the season that the team were on the “wrong track” and team principal Toto Wolff admitted that the W14 design “didn’t work out”. Since then, Mercedes has been competing against Aston Martin and Ferrari for the best of the rest while Red Bull have been utterly dominant this season. The design problems have also led to changes in the Mercedes senior leadership team, as James Allison has returned as technical director as a replacement of Mike Elliott, who has been moved to a chief technical officer role.
Explaining why Mercedes’ upgrades have taken so long, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained “If we go all the way back to the test and race in Bahrain, that was where we realised that we didn’t have a package that was going to allow us to fight for a world championship – if we continued on that same development direction, we wouldn’t end up in a position where we felt we could challenge Red Bull.
“It was around that time that we made some decisions on how we develop the car, how the car works aerodynamically, and how we shape the characteristics of the car. In essence, how it is in terms of handling for the drivers to drive. What we are going to be bringing to the track in Imola is the first step of that work. This takes quite a long time to develop in the wind tunnel and you can’t just do these things overnight.”
Speaking at the Saudi Arabian GP in March, Hamilton admitted that changing the sidepod alone wouldn’t fix Mercedes’ issues. The seven time World Champion said “People keep talking about getting the new sidepods on the car but it’s not as simple as that. You put the Red Bull sidepods on our car and it won’t change a thing, it literally won’t change a thing, it might even go slower. It’s about aero characteristics, it’s how the car is balanced through the corners. There’s so many different elements that people of course would not know because they’re not aerodynamicists and you can’t see it – there’s a lot more to it.”
Red Bull currently have a 122 point lead in the Constructors Standings and have won all five races so far. When asked whether the new upgrades could close the gap for Mercedes, team principal Toto Wolff said “We need to manage our own expectations. Because we are bringing an update package that is going to consist of new suspension parts and bodywork and some other things but I have never in my 15 years in Formula 1 seen a silver bullet being introduced where suddenly you unlock half a second of performance. I very much doubt this is going to happen here.
“What I’m looking for is that we take certain variables off the table where we believe we could have introduced something that we don’t understand in the car and to have a stable platform. We shall see what our baseline is and what we can do from there.” Wolff also said that more upgrades are expected in the future and have enough funds to ensure that the team can be competitive for the season. He said “Yes we do, because if you embark on a new development direction it’s that one project you concentrate on so that should be fine.”
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