Mercedes failed to get back to championship contention once again in 2023, with the team finishing P2. Furthermore, they failed to win any race throughout the campaign. This is mainly because of the underwhelming W14 challenger, and George Russell feels that they rushed in developing the car. However, he is of the opinion that Mercedes will not make the same mistake with their car this year.
Russell said to Motorsport that Mercedes has been “working on the new [W15] concept for a long time and there’s been so much due diligence gone into that concept. Whereas I think last year it was all a little bit rushed.”
Notably, the W14 had multiple issues this season as pointed out by George Russell and his teammate Lewis Hamilton. While Russell complained about the balance of the car, Hamilton revealed how the rear stability of the car has been a season-long issue.
Along with these, the car also had troubles with tire degradation and did not have enough straight-line speed. Nevertheless, Russell is confident that these issues are going to be rectified going into the winter break. As for team principal Toto Wolff, he acknowledged the issues and said that the entire concept that was used to build the W13 and the W14 will be scrapped.
Mercedes and their miserable concepts
Mercedes began their 2022 F1 season with an out-of-the-box concept, known as zero side pod. Even though it looked very fast from the outside, in reality, it was the opposite. It was not even close to the Red Bulls or Ferraris to begin with and at times was overpowered by the likes of Alpine and Haas.
However, the Silver Arrows scrapped the entire concept to bring changes to their sidepod and floor. In doing so, they improved, but not by a lot. Wolff’s team finished the 2022 season in P3, and in 2023, they took P2.
At the same time, they could not win a race in 2023. Therefore, the improvement was not well felt by the Brackley-based team. However, there are talks that Wolff, Hamilton, and Russell are close to catching up to Red Bull heading into the 2024 season.
However, it will be interesting to see to what extent they can challenge the Austrian team. Given the massive advantage Red Bull already has, Mercedes’ development, despite the presence of Lewis Hamilton in the factory would be an important one to look for.
