Mercedes-AMG F1 had the tough challenge of being the next team to present after the exhibition held yesterday by Ferrari. The star team is already the penultimate car to appear after more than two weeks in which each of the structures has been presenting some of their novelties. The W14 was shown in this case in a much more classic event than the one held at the Fiorano Circuit, opting for a traditional press conference with interviews with drivers, the technical director and the project's alma mater, Toto Wolff.
And the biggest surprise has come from the hand of the new change of colours for which the team based in Brackley, United Kingdom has opted. After 2020, they chose to use the colour black as a way of joining the campaign against racism and in favour of diversity, now, the star's firm also recovers said hue to sign the W14 for other compelling reasons, precisely with the aim of lightening a few grams and getting closer to those 798 kg minimum established by the regulations.
The team itself affirmed that during 2022 they were well above said figures that mark the ground on which the cars must be, therefore, as a way of contributing to this weight reduction for 2023, they have chosen to eliminate the paint silver grey, and take the path similar to the one that legend has it that happened in the thirties and that had as a measure to sand the white paint that all German cars wore and leave the W25 with the aluminium body exposed.
With almost a century of difference with respect to this history that is always remembered when talking about the "silver arrows", Mercedes has decided to paint only the upper part of the nose and some areas of the engine hood to leave the rest with carbon fibre to the exposed nude. In addition, you can also appreciate a shorter nose, changes in aerodynamics, as well as a slight gain in volume in the aggressive sidepods used in the 2022 concept and which has forced the engineers to make a very packaging of the power unit.
Beyond that, you can also appreciate the changes in the geometry of the front suspension, as well as the characteristic air inlets on the sides that become arranged in a vertical position and with a rectangular shape. Also, the upper gills have been modified to extract those extra grades from the inside of the sidepods. The objective is obviously to win again and fight for the titles after 2022 in which practically the entire year they had to fight a very different enemy, porpoising, which weighed them down completely and even led them to consider the complete change of concept.
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Although Mike Elliott, Technical Director, is confident that this rebound effect has been eliminated, we will have to wait until the first weekend of March to be able to know for sure if this evil has finally been stopped and if the W14 is ready for fighting with Ferrari and Red Bull again for the top places on a regular basis, victories that only George Russell achieved last year in Brazil.
