Looks like the 2023 Mercedes F1 challenger that once again brought hopes and expectations to the Mercedes family is not working as envisioned.
For the first time since 2014, Mercedes lost the constructor’s championship last year. For the first time, the team was at risk of losing all its dignity, which was saved by just a solitary win. And for the first time in his entire career, Lewis Hamilton remained a loser in all the races held in a season. The 2022 F1 season just broke the confidence of the Silver Arrows. The team that won 8 title back-to-back in the last decade are, now trembling in saying that the new Mercedes car will lead them to victory. Its boss Toto Wolff always ends up saying no one knows what will happen when he speaks about the W14.
Mercedes May Face a Hard Time With The New Car
Mercedes launched their 2023 Formula One championship car on February 15. The event was one of the biggest in history. Because this time, very surprisingly, the Silver Arrows changed the car’s livery to black. The Silver-themed car was not brought back because of the weight issues. But looking at the black sparkles of the W14, fans are hoping that the winning era of Mercedes will RETURN. Also, it is the same livery that made Lewis Hamilton become a seven-time world. What if the W14 matches the W11 in terms of performance? Mercedes will definitely be the strongest on the grid. But things are going on the contrary for team Mercedes so far.
Right after the Brackley Based team launched its new car, an analysis was done. After recording the performance of the first run of the W14 at Silverstone, both drivers shared the experience. The start was solid; Lewis Hamilton claimed it to be smooth. But is the W14 really fast enough to let Mercedes fill the gap they created with Red Bull in 2022? Is the W14 really meeting the expectations of fans?
The W14 Not As Fast As Fans Expected
According to the reports, the W14 is not the perfect car for Mercedes to get back what it lost. Shattering fans’ hopes into pieces, the media shares the information that the black livery of the new Mercedes may bring a black year this time.
The publisher believes that the sandbagging of the car will somehow affect the granular substance and impact the “power of mind games” in Formula One. It said, “There will be a temptation for the Mercedes boss and his strategists to sandbag as much as possible when their new all-black W14 car takes to the track in the middle of the Bahrain desert.” Now, all the predictions and analyses are waiting for the Friday test run in Sakhir to get themselves proven correct.
However, as per recent reports, Mercedes is hurriedly manufacturing metallic suspension arms at the back end after faults were found with the carbon bones they originally designed and fitted. Despite passing the FIA crash test, the carbon tub was found to be moving much more than the desired amount.
Fans were unknown of the fact that Mercedes was bringing the zero-pod concept again, but they got surprised. This time instead of removing the side pod design of the car, which was the unique innovation of the W13. The car that made Hamilton lose his winning streak Mercedes continued featuring it in the new car. So it may be possible that the team brings some changes before or after the pre-season test running. This will come in order to prove those negative predictions wrong and to claim back its winning streaks finally.