Mercedes has revealed whether it will continue to add improvements to the W14 and how this will impact 2024.
Silver Arrows are yet to win a race in 2023. While Red Bull has been beaten, Ferrari is the only team to dethrone this year’s champions. Initially unhappy with his car, team Principal Toto Wolff did not perform well. He called the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix “one of the worst days of racing.” After the opening race, Mercedes took drastic action, abandoning the idea of a zero-side pod. A significant design overhaul introduced in Monaco transformed the W14.
Although still further behind Red Bull, the team overhauled Aston Martin at the start of the year. He is now involved in a tight battle for the Ferrari P2. The dynamic swing between Mercedes and Scuderia. In another attempt to move forward, Mercedes and Ferrari have made improvements to their cars. The battle for P2 is expected to continue until the final race in Abu Dhabi. Ferrari maintained the pressure, with Charles Leclerc believing the Scuderia had the “upper hand” over the Silver Arrows.
Upgrade with 2024 benefits
As reported by Formula1.com, Mercedes has confirmed through its YouTube channel whether it plans to bring more upgrades to the W14. When asked, Rosie Wait, Head of Strategy, said: “Ultimately, the decision is never as black and white as it seems. » Wait said the intention is that any upgrades applied before the end of the season will have a direct impact on the 2024 W15:
“The new parts we bring to the car do both of those things, we hope to improve performance and make the existing car faster, but they are all specifically targeted into areas where we need a deeper understanding. And what we learned from testing them this year will directly inform the development of the W15. »
Wait admits team needs to focus on battle with Ferrari for P2:
“We must also not ignore the fact that we are in a very tight fight for P2 with Ferrari and this championship position is really important for all of us. So we are make improvements and we will continue to do so. bring them out to the car.
Working to avoid a repeat of this season
Andrew Shovlin, Director of Trackside Engineering, also revealed that some of the work on the W15 was aimed at avoiding a repeat of the “issues” seen this year:
“We’ve done a lot of work to try to iron out some of the problems on this car and make sure we don’t have them next year. We’ve moved forward, the car we had before, in 2022, tended to be very far in qualifying, it usually ran a little bit better.
Shovlin also revealed the team believes it has improved but admitted Mercedes needs to find more to challenge Red Bull: “The performance was very, very track specific. So, some areas we have improved. The big issues, we’re just not quick enough. So, we need to find a good chunk of performance, to challenge Red Bull in particular. But the other thing is the field is now super close.
So, you look at some of the gaps we had 12 months ago, and you can have a decent qualifying position, you might be fourth or fifth on the grid, but you were eight, nine tenths off. Now, if you do that, you end up getting bumped in Q1 or Q2.
“So, there’s lots for us to work on and certainly some of the work will be about making sure we can give the drivers the confidence in the car that they’re lacking at the moment. And that’s a big area. We’ve got some interesting projects that hopefully they’ll come off.”
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