Mercedes is preparing for the 2023 season after a hard time in 2022 as Toto Wolff gives an insight on the progress.
The 2022 F1 season was a rather disappointing one for Mercedes. After winning eight consecutive constructor titles, the new regulations didn’t fare well with the Silver Arrows.
The team seemed to struggle with the new ground-effect-based car. The zero sidepod concept only added to problems as it seemed to only increase the porpoising problem more.
Regardless, the Brackley-based squad did make some progress throughout the season. By the end of the season, Mercedes bridged quite a gap with Ferrari also bagging the only win in Brazil. However, the team still seemed far from the leader of red bull.
Team principal Toto Wolff has now provided some insight over the next year’s challenger – W14 revealing a lot might have changed underneath and it will be “full of surprises”:
“It’s full of surprises,”
Wolff told the media.
“The last time I saw it I thought ‘oh this looks the same [as the W13]’ but here’s hoping it’s not the same.”
“I’m pretty much like you, I go into the wind tunnel and it looks like this year’s car but they say to me it’s very different underneath.“
“It’s about the airflow, it’s about the weight distribution, it’s about the aero map.“
“Our car fundamentally changed mid-year. We changed the concept but we couldn’t see anything on the bodywork.”
‘We have a much better understanding’ – Wolff
The upcoming season won’t be that easy either for the Silver Arrows given how far ahead their main rivals were. However, Toto Wolff has assured that the squad is more focused on developing a car that is more competitive while being comfortable for both drivers at the same time:
“I think we have a much better understanding of what the problems were,”
explained the Austrian.
“We’ve been peeling only a layer of the onion, layers of discovering more issues and more problems, but I think we’ve come to the point that we understand pretty well why the car is not performing.”
“The correlation at least is there for some tracks so it’s all in the fine detail of how can we make the car work out aerodynamically, how can we improve the ride and make it more fun?“
“I think if we’re able to solve that over the winter, at least we can provide a stable platform to the drivers and we can develop it from there.”
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