Looking to return to the top, Mercedes pulled back the cover on their car for 2023
On Thursday, Mercedes-AMG launched their car for the 2023 F1 season, the W14 E Performance, at a digital event at legendary Silverstone circuit. Drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will take the W14 to the track later today, which hosts the British Grand Prix.
After a difficult season, which saw the team struggle with “porpoising” during the early part of the season, Mercedes hopes the W14 not only solves the aerodynamic issues of 2022, but pushes them back to the top of the Constructors’ table in the season ahead. “I see so much effort, motivation and energy in the organisation to launch a car that will eventually be competitive enough to fight at the very front of the grid,” said Team Principal Toto Wolff in a statement provided to the media, including SB Nation.
There are two notable features of the W14 at first glance: The bodywork, and the somewhat distinctive black livery that Mercedes used in both 2020 and 2021.
The team leaned into the change from silver to black on social media:
You thought it was going to be silver didn’t you, admit it…
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) February 15, 2023
The return to the black livery was made with weight in mind. “We were overweight last year. This year we have tried to figure out where we can squeeze out every single gram. So now, history repeats itself. You will see that the car has some raw carbon bits, along with some that are painted matte black. Of course, when we changed the livery in 2020 the main driving factor was to support the diversity and equality causes which are always close to our heart. The colour black became part of our DNA at that point, so we are pleased to return to it,” said Wolff.
Mercedes Technical Director Mike Elliott addressed issues of balance that the W13 struggled with last season, issues that the team hopes the W14 can rectify in the season ahead. “We never really got on top of the car balance last year. All the normal work we do at the beginning of the season didn’t happen because of the problems we were trying to rectify. We’ve got to learn as much as we can, to work out how to get the most performance out of the car and what we can learn to feed into the next developments.”
As you might expect, drivers Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, and reserve driver Mick Schumacher all sang the W14’s praises. Russell called the design “bold” and “aggressive,” while Hamilton had this to say: “To see the evolution of the car and the changes that have been made is fascinating. We’ve redesigned, optimised, and innovated so many parts of the car and that is impressive. And I love the new livery! It says, ‘we mean business’.”
Mercedes is now the ninth team to showcase their look for the 2023 F1 season, following Haas, Red Bull, Alfa Romeo, AlphaTauri, Williams, Aston Martin, Ferrari and McLaren. Only one team is left, which is Alpine slated for Thursday.
Then it will be time to stop talking about liveries, and time to start racing.
