The W14 Mercedes car is an evolution of the W13 that the team brought last year, which remained the worst car in the entire history of the German manufacturer. With the implementation of the ground floor effects, Red Bull got the opportunity to embark on their strong comeback. But Mercedes, unfortunately, had to end their dominance. In 2022, the team just saved themselves from drowning with their solitary win. The star driver of Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton, who is accustomed to driving the strongest car on the grid, was devastated by the weak performance of the W13. He lost all his winning streaks that season. In order to fulfill the demand of the seven-time world champion, the Silver Arrows promised a strong comeback, but they just sadly broke it.
The W14, which was supposed to bring back Mercedes’s dignity, is not a car worth the championship. In the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton attained a P5, and in the Saudi Arabian grand Prix, he finished again on P5. Clearly, Mercedes posted a very weak performance as compared to its rivals. But it was not a surprise for the team. They somehow knew that the car they were producing during the winter break was not what they were expected to make.
Andrew Shovlin Explains How Mercedes Knew Things Before The Bahrain Grand Prix Began
Mercedes principal Toto Wolff has announced that the team is into changing the entire concept of the W14. He apologized for all the hopes that Mercedes shattered and would like to take a different direction in order to get back on the front of the grid. But wait a minute, isn’t it too fast to announce such a thing? How can a boss go for apologies after one race? Maybe he already knew that they were not doing the right thing. Meaning all this time that Mercedes claimed a good time before the season began was the time they were acting!
Meanwhile, the trackside director of the team, Andrew Shovlin, emerges to explain the limits of the W14 with the wind tunnel part of the car. He explained that even before they got to Bahrain, they saw the development rates in the wind tunnel. “There were conversations about looking at bigger departures,” he said, as quoted by AutoSport.
The thing is, Mercedes is not looking at their wind tunnel with just their latest creation; they have been doing this for the past ten years. Shovlin believes that the gains you don’t find after working compel you to make bigger changes in the car. This is how you get to explore the other areas of the car. And for Mercedes W14, this was already happening even before the Bahrain Grand Prix. But, “since there was the urgency to bring those bits on the track has gone up following the early races,” said Shovlin.
However, now Mercedes is ready to make changes to the car. They are even ready to ditch their invention of the unique side pods. But the only thing they are not sure of is the positive feedback. Mercedes still don’t know if the evolution of the car will have an impact on the result or not.