F1: Mercedes Reveals Plans To Make The W14 More Drivable Ahead Of Baku Sprint Weekend

Mercedes seemed to show a decent pace and brought the fight to the top 2 teams in Australia. While Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was unstoppable after a certain point in the race, both George Russel & Lewis Hamilton led the Australian GP for a few laps each, showing positive signs of improvement for the Brackley-based outfit. Russel eventually retired from the race due to a power unit failure, but Hamilton pushed on and fended off any challenge from Alonso, to bring home the team’s first podium for 2023 in second place.

Speaking in Mercedes' customary post-race debrief video, the team’s technical chief James Allison said that the team “will be doing the normal things” during the 3-weekend break between Australian GP & Azerbaijan GP. “We will be working in the drawing office also to bring some mechanical parts to the car, some different suspension components that we think will help the underlying balance of the car, and make it a more drivable thing, making it something that the drivers have more confidence to push right to the limit” he added.

With Baku being a sprint race weekend, the teams will get only one practice session before qualifying, and one after. When asked about how the team will change the approach for the race weekend, he said, “It’s a big deal at Baku. It’s the first Sprint of the season, and Sprint [weekends] really reward the teams that can land there with a starting set-up that is pretty on the money and ready to go in qualifying, because the time is really compressed in a Sprint weekend.” “Those are things that we will be working on and hopefully we will work well and strong and have a good showing when we show up in Baku in just a few weeks’ time.”

It won’t be just Mercedes that's improving though, as both Aston Martin & Ferrari will have a series of upgrades to their cars incoming in the following weeks. With Red Bull far off in the distance, the 3 teams look set to battle it out for P2 in the constructors championship. Ferrari have been on the back foot in the opening 3 races, but it will be too soon to write them off from the fight, and how the season will shape up to be will be an interesting story.