Still with peculiar sidepods
The Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team provides the biggest surprise so far in the car reveals: after one year in silver, the British-German team is back in the black. This is the W14!
Mercedes-AMG F1 had its most disappointing season in years last year and could only record one victory. George Russell recorded his first Grand Prix victory in Brazil in the autumn. A meager harvest, since the racing team became constructors champion for the eighth time in a row a year earlier. 2022 is therefore a year to quickly forget for the team and that reinforces it by returning to the black of 2020 and 2021 after one season. In 2020, the then car (which was still revealed in silver) became black painted at the request of Lewis Hamilton. Now especially the fans requested to go back to black and Mercedes is responding.
Mercedes only sprays almost nothing on the car: most of what you see as black is just unpainted carbon fiber. That’s smart, because it saves weight. Actually, it does something similar to what it used to do. Legend has it that an originally white Mercedes race car had its paint stripped to lighten it and revealed the ‘silver’ metal, with the name Silberpfeil as result.
The W14, like many other Formula 1 cars already revealed for 2023, still somewhat resembles its predecessor in its design. That was quite a controversial setup, with the very narrow sidepods with vertical air intakes. Mercedes seemed to be the only one to have found a special possibility in the regulations, but it did not bring them what was hoped. The W14 must now rectify that. At the end of last season, the team with the W13 already seemed to know what had to be done. It will be exciting whether it pays off.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl