The design direction Mercedes is pursuing with their new car for the 2023 Formula 1 season has been made clearer than it has previously been.
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The eight-time champions finished third in the standings the previous year, sparking rumours that they would give up the revolutionary “zeropod” design they used to race. The squad, however, has already signalled that it is not about to give up the concept because it thinks the issues that undermined its W13 were elsewhere. The team will now enter pre-season testing this year in the hopes of finally gaining performance from its distinctive design, according to team principal Toto Wolff.
Wolff told the media, including RaceFans, “I think we have recognised how we regressed and where the flaws are, where we have holes in understanding or have gaps in understanding, and we’re working hard to put a car on the ground that has addressed all of that.” “However, we won’t know if we’ve unlocked the potential that we believe has always been in the car until we start testing.”
Mercedes’ W14 will debut on February 15. Eight days later, the lone, three-day pre-season test will start in Bahrain. He warned that the squad still needed to do much better in order to compete with the dominant 2022 champion Red Bull and second-place finisher Ferrari. “We have no doubt that it will be tough to catch up to such excellent organisations as Red Bull or Ferrari when you’re starting behind by half a second,” added Wolff.
The thought that Mercedes may start the 2017 season as far apart from their main competitors as they were in Abu Dhabi two months ago has Wolff on edge. Having stated that, we are really committed to achieving this goal, but we must maintain reasonable expectations. We would like to participate in the racing at the front if we perform as we hope. I believe that would be a good place to start. But we don’t consider it to be a given. It’s possible that the gaps are the same as they were at the end of the previous season. But I believe that there is still so much potential in our car, in the idea behind it, in the way we drive it, etc., that perhaps our development slope can be steeper in the months to come.
