‘Silver Arrows’ is the nickname for Mercedes’ F1 team, but it seems as though no one on the team wants to be associated with the silver color anymore. When the team launched in 2013, the livery was silver and that was the case until the 2020 season when they introduced a black-colored car. Since then, everyone including Lewis Hamilton fell in love with how the car looked.
Initially, the car was changed to black as a sign of their support for the ‘black lives matter’ movement. This continued in 2021 too but the next year, they decided to go back to Silver. The W13 (Mercedes’ 2022 car) was not a favorite of anyone at their Brackley factory, because of its poor on-track performance.
However, as revealed by Hamilton, the design too was disliked by almost everyone at their headquarters. According to the seven-time world champion, when they brought the car to Bahrain for pre-season testing, everyone on their team felt that the car didn’t look good.
“Ultimately, it (the black livery) looks so much better,” said Hamilton in an interview.
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Lewis Hamilton not happy with Mercedes W14
When the 2022 season, Hamilton publicly that he was elated to see the back of the W13. It was arguably one of the most difficult cars he ever drove, and he went the entire year win-less for the first time in his illustrious F1 career.
2023 was supposed to be a year of comeback for the Silver Arrows, but the first race of the year was abysmal for Hamilton and co. The W14 looked very slow during the race, and slipped below Aston Martin in the pecking order.
Hamilton has not given up on his team to fight back (at least publicly) but did not hold back while slamming them for not listening to his feedback over the winter break. He stated that he knew that the W14 was not good, the moment he drove it for the first time.
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Will Hamilton stay at Mercedes?
Hamilton has been with Mercedes since 2013, and has created history with the German outfit. He won six world championships with them, and helped the team win eight constructors’ titles. Currently, he is tied with Michael Schumacher as the driver with the most number of titles (7).
Currently 38 years old, Hamilton is desperate to move clear of Schumacher before he calls time on his F1 career. As a result, if Mercedes can’t provide him with a car to win, the Stevenage-born driver could look elsewhere with rumors linking him to Ferrari becoming stronger after the opening weekend in Bahrain.
