Lewis Hamilton was far from being happy with the W14 right from the beginning of the 2023 F1 season. He constantly complained about the stability of the car and how the rear end of the challenger posed constant discomfort for the seven-time world champion. Mercedes did not pay heed to the Briton’s feedback and that was probably the biggest problem with the Silver Arrows this season that cost them.
The issues pointed out by Hamilton remained unsolved right to the end of the season and this promoted James Allison, the Technical Director of the Mercedes F1 team to emphasize it. Allison revealed that the team didn’t pay enough attention to Hamilton’s problem as they were focusing on a different problem that needed immediate solving.
Allison, speaking about this, said in a report published by The Race, “When we were completely and utterly stuck in the bouncing hell, all we could do was fix that because that was the number one, two, and three problems.”
The team was focused on eliminating the porpoising at first and then focused on other issues such as top speed, DRS, etc. Therefore, the issue raised by the 38-year-old didn’t come as the priority back then, and this became a headache as the season went on in 2023.
Following this, he added, “We were not good enough at listening to the fact that they [the drivers] were telling us something else in parallel, which is that they didn’t like the turn-in instability of the car.”
Notably, George Russell also complained about the car’s stability, something the W14 lacked consistently. Nevertheless, the team took steps to curb that with upgrades in Austin. Now, the focus is to completely eliminate this issue ahead of the 2024 F1 season.
Lewis Hamilton raised multiple issues with Mercedes with W14
As Lewis Hamilton did not have the season he hoped for, the British driver was naturally frustrated with how his car turned out this season. Apart from having a rear-end stability issue, the W14 also lacked pace.
Notably, the W14 debuted as one of the slowest cars among the top packs. It lacked hugely in terms of race pace when compared to Red Bull and had negligible DRS advantage.
Therefore, the debut race in Bahrain saw Hamilton finish in P5, while his teammate George Russell ended his race in P7. Admittedly, things didn’t turn out to be any better even though Mercedes moved away from their zero sidepod design.
Hamilton, speaking about all the problems in March this year, told the BBC as per Daily Mail, “Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car. Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need.”
He also mentioned, “And I think it’s really about accountability, it’s about owning up and saying, ‘Yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work’“. Nevertheless, after two years of downfall, Mercedes still has time to get the best out of this regulation bring out a race-winning car in 2024, and make Lewis Hamilton happy.
