Last year, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell had to bear the poor performances of the Mercedes car. In the previous season, something was wrong with the cars, as the racers suffered back pains and several injuries. At the moment, Hamilton explained, “these days, bruisings happen often and can get very severe. These bruises take a lot of recovery time.” The terrible bouncing caused by the car’s porpoising caused their failure in the 2022 season. But now, after all the changes and required modifications, the Silver Arrows are all in to introduce their brand-new W14. And looks like they have also revealed the launch date for that.
Mercedes has become the latest Formula 1 team to unravel its launch plans ahead of the 2023 season, with the racing team set to reveal its W14 car on 15 February. The Silver Arrows are set to unveil its 2023 F1 car, named the F1 W14 E Performance, on Wednesday, in an event broadcast live from Silverstone. Moreover, the team has released a statement along with the launch date to address all the fans around the world. As the statement reads, “The progress enabled by the efforts and determination of everyone at Brackley and Brixworth helped achieve stronger results from mid-season onwards, culminating in a 1-2 finish at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.”
1⃣5⃣.0⃣2⃣.2⃣0⃣2⃣3⃣
— Mercedes-AMG Motorsport (@amgmotorsport) January 12, 2023
👉 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E PERFORMANCE launch. #WorldsFastestFamily #WeLivePerformance #MercedesAMGF1 #W14 pic.twitter.com/VODy1L5xgL
Moreover, to understand the problem better and find the solution, Mercedes took some big measures, changing their design tools, especially the system of CFD.
What Was The Problem With Mercedes’ F1 Cars In 2022?
The Director of Trackside Engineering in the Mercedez team, Andrew Shovlin, recently spoke to Motorsport. In the interview, he discussed that the team is currently investing in the assessment of car developments. Not only that, they are trying to figure out aerodynamically the condition of the cars.
The German manufacturing team is trying its best to solve the porpoising issues that troubled the drivers. Mr. Shovlin mentioned that the group saw the lights coming on while developing solutions to these technical problems.
As the Mercedes engineer spoke to Motorsport, he continued, “the problem was not the wind tunnel but the porpoising mechanism. Hence we had to somehow get it out of the car. All that is needed are some fundamental work to understand what actually was bothering the car.”
Lewis Hamilton was badly injured in Baku, Azerbaijan Grand Prix. He faced some problems getting out of the car and later clutched his spine. Later, the Briton described the pain saying that he was biting his teeth as it hurt so much. Hamilton just hoped his team would fix the problem and issues with the car. At Brazil Grand Prix, Mercedes managed a win, with George Russell claiming first place. But after the team came to Abu Dhabi, the bouncing was back. As Hamilton sarcastically mentioned, the bouncing came back with “vengeance.”
This porpoising issue’s reversal raised a lot of questions. As traditionally, the teams to evolve their respective cars tend to find more ways to downforce themselves, Mercedes might have bigger concerns with porpoising to deal with this new season.
The FIA also looked into the matter and has taken certain precautions. And as a result, they have made some changes to the height of the diffuser and the floor edges. Now, only time will tell if this plan works. However, the racing team doesn’t have much time to resolve any issue if any comes, as they will have only three days for testing. This year’s season will start at the Bahrain Grand Prix. And it will be hard for any team to tell if there is any problem with the cars until they start racing.
Mercedes will now hope everything goes fine. But with the updated technology, the team is looking for redemption in the next seasons. Mr. Shovlin also added that they are thinking about the performances in the future. Hence the developments on the cars that the team is working on now will be crucial in the future.