The Mercedes-AMG F1 W14, which the team from Brackley presented on February 15 and then brought to Bahrain for testing, is just a modified version of the W13 that meets the requirements of the 2023 technical regulations and is devoid of the shortcomings from that of last year. fashion model.
At least, that is what the Mercedes management stated at the presentation, but it seems that the car did not live up to the expectations set during the tests. It turned out that the W14 slips in the corners, so Lewis Hamilton and George Russell managed to achieve a relatively normal level of grip only on the softest C5 rubber compound. But next weekend, when the teams start the Bahrain Grand Prix, they will have stiffer tires available and the C3 will be the softest compound.
The second time of the day that Hamilton showed on Saturday (1:30.664) can therefore hardly be regarded as representative.
According to Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport, the underside of the W14 does not provide a sufficiently effective ground effect, which means that when braking before cornering, the grip of the rear wheels can be greatly reduced, leading to destabilization of the car. However, the front tires don’t hold the track very reliably either, with downforce generally lacking.
The newspaper quotes Toto Wolff, the head of the concern’s factory team in Stuttgart, as saying: “We will bring new components to the races and the W14 will start to look more like other cars.” This suggests that Brackley is working hard on an upgraded version of the chassis for 2023, although we’re unlikely to see it in the first three stages of the season.
If Mercedes is going to follow the same scenario that the Aston Martin team followed last year, then it is logical to assume that the updated version will not be presented until after the Australian Grand Prix (in 2022 the converted AMR22 car went to Barcelona), at the earliest – on the last weekend of April, when the race will be held in Azerbaijan. In addition, the Melbourne and Baku stages will be separated by a three-week break.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
