It is true that Mercedes seemed to have solved many of the problems that the Formula 1 team had to deal with last year with the W14 in recent test drives. However, the new Silver Arrow has not (yet) proven to be competitive enough to compete with Red Bull and Ferrari.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff admits before the Formula 1 season opener this week: “The winter test in Bahrain didn’t go entirely smoothly. We had some reliability problems and struggled with the car set-up on the second day.”
“But the main goal was to learn something about the car and we learned a lot,” assures the Austrian. “We were able to make some good progress on the final day which has given us indications of what we can work on in the short time between testing and this weekend’s race.”
In any case, it is always difficult to get a clear picture of the balance of power during the tests before the start of the season. “It’s even more difficult if you only have data from three test days,” emphasizes Wolff, with a view to the limited test time.
“Given how the season ended last year, our expectations were that we would probably have to catch up at the top. That seems to be the case so far, but we won’t know for sure until after this weekend.”
However, the team is confident that it is in a stronger position than it was 12 months ago and that it has a car it can work with, emphasizes Wolff. “A lot of hard work has gone into the W14 over the winter and the anticipation for the new season has grown,” says the team boss.
“We look forward to the challenge. This championship will be held over 23 weekends and each one will give us the opportunity to improve.”
Brundle sees a lack of confidence
From the point of view of the Sky experts Martin Brundle, Karun Chandhok and Damon Hill, this will also be sorely needed if Mercedes wants to have a say in the fight for the 2023 title. “It’s an evolution of the car that they struggled with last year,” Brundle analyzes the W14.
“They knew what direction to take to get rid of the fundamental problems. But I think we all expected them to be right back at the front when it comes to drivability and reliability.”
“Sometimes it’s strange,” says the former Formula 1 driver. “You just have to look at (the football club) Liverpool. Small nuances are enough, changes in staff or in philosophy, maybe a lack of confidence. That’s what I see at Mercedes at the moment.”
Chandhok also sees a point here. “The confidence thing is interesting. We often talk about it in the driver’s context. But designing a race car is an art – a creative process that involves physics and mathematics, but you need the creativity to get it going,” he says.
“The designers at Mercedes developed a concept and had to take a beating for it. Their drivers were not happy. Their team boss complained on the radio what a bad car it was,” Chandhok recalls in 2022.
At what point is the concept discarded?
“Now this year they have developed a car that doesn’t work right away. So what will happen in 2024? We’re coming to the first race and maybe they’ve reached that untapped potential that we’ve talked about a lot. Then it’s all good . But if not, what then?” Asks the Sky expert.
“At what point do you give up the concept and say, ‘We’re going to start again from scratch for 2024’? Otherwise this spiral just keeps going. So this is an important year for Mike Elliott and his design group to rebuild confidence.”
Because otherwise it will be difficult for Lewis Hamilton to still win title number eight. “You can be as fit as you want. If the car doesn’t perform well, he will have to fight against it,” says Hill, world champion in 1996.
“It was very clear from the interviews: Max (Verstappen) could hardly hide his enthusiasm, while Lewis seemed quite crushed.”
Still, Brundle isn’t writing Mercedes off in the fight for the title just yet: “It’s clear they still have to work on the fine-tuning and they have to do that early on. Remember that Verstappen didn’t score any points until the second race last year and still won the World Cup.”