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Previewing the Monaco Grand Prix, the Mercedes boss addressed the team’s upgrades to the W14
In Mercedes’ preview of the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix, Team Principal Toto Wolff outlined that the team is indeed bringing upgrades to the W14. However, fans hoping to see Mercedes suddenly challenging Red Bull at the front of the field might want to pack something else in their suitcases as they head to Monaco.
Patience.
“The revised calendar means that Monaco is now the starting point of the European leg of the season,” said Wolff. “It is a unique event but will still provide an opportunity to learn about the upgrades to W14 – but we also need to be careful not to draw too many conclusions from this one event. We are introducing the first step in a new development direction.”
Following the Miami Grand Prix, Mercedes was one of many teams eying the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola as a chance to unveil planned upgrades to their challengers. But with the cancellation of that event, some teams have decided to pass on Monaco, and instead bring upgrades to next week’s Spanish Grand Prix. Given how challenging the streets of Monte Carlo are — and how slim the margin for error is — expensive upgrades could be a risk.
Mercedes, however, is forging ahead.
Still, Wolff cautions patience.
“[The upgrades] won’t be a silver bullet; from my experience, they do not exist in our sport. We hope that it gives the drivers a more stable and predictable platform,” said the team boss. “Then we can build on that in the weeks and months ahead.”
“F1 is tough competition and a meritocracy,” he added. “We are not where we want to be but there’s no sense of entitlement. It’s just about hard work to get us to the front.”
Some pundits believe that the upgrade could be critical for Mercedes both on the track, and off it. Earlier this week The Daily Mail reported that Ferrari was preparing a shock offer for Lewis Hamilton, whose contract with Mercedes is set to expire at the end of the season. Wolff brushed those rumors aside in recent days, telling Austrian outlet Osterreich that he was “firmly convinced” that Hamilton would remain with the team, and that a new deal would be done.
So while the planned upgrades to the W14 might not be a “silver bullet” for results on the track, some believe could these upgrades be a “silver bullet” for getting results off it. On this week’s Sky Sports F1 Podcast, both Naomi Schiff and Simon Lazenby wondered if the upgrades could sway Hamilton one way or another.
“I don’t think [Hamilton is considering leaving] but if these upgrades don’t live up to what [Mercedes] are hoping that they will and potentially let’s talk about next season and they start poorly again then he will be considering in what manner he wants to end his career in Formula 1 – does he want to be struggling for fourth or fifth place or does he want to be back at the front, and then I guess Red Bull,” said Schiff.
Lazenby was even more direct.
“I think a lot of Lewis’ decision about his future depends on this upgrade set,” he said.
He then dove deeper into the W13, and the issues the team dealt with a season ago.
“When you look back to what happened last year, the hopes for the W13 coming out of the simulator was that it was going to blow the rest of them away, it was going to blow Red Bull away and it was going to blow Ferrari away.
“The correlation between what happened there and reality, well we all know the story – Red Bull went with the undercut sidepod philosophy which everyone has moved towards whereas Mercedes had this exposed floor and then the porpoising happened, they had to stiffen the floor and couldn’t raise the rear ride height enough and it turned into bouncing.
“All of this year’s problems have come from the fact that I think they were just tantalised by those figures which said ‘we are going to completely and utterly destroy the field, let’s stick with it’. We get into this year and all of the limitations that were created by having to try to solve those problems, including keeping Lewis further up front in terms of his seating position so he doesn’t feel the rear of his car, they just had to have a reset and a complete rethink of their philosophy.
“If they’ve got it wrong this time, what happens with the no-blame culture then?”
One way or another, these could be some pretty critical upgrades for Mercedes.
