Mercedes finally kills the ‘zeropod’ and fixes it by putting the W14 ‘B’ to the test in Monaco – Formula 1 News

Anyway, the Mercedes informed the world of the updates that had been carefully read in Brackley for the past three months. It is the attempt to find the direction of assertiveness within the code that made the primary impact System 1. The German team invested in an extreme concept in 2022, at the beginning of the law, and said that there was still potential, but 2023 showed the harsh reality and revealed, without a filter, the wrong choice of the eight-time champion team. Therefore, the new car began to think immediately after the first race, on Bahrain. Part of this work can already be seen this Thursday (25) in the hole of the hole Monacowhereas F1 is for the sixth round of the season.

The original idea was to keep this update pack evidence in Imola, last week, but the cancellation of the race ended up forcing Mercedes to make a bold and courageous decision. I mean, with everything ready, the squad chose to use Administration for the first big test of new things. The choice is dangerous because of the nature of the Monegasque track: very slow, narrow and with bumpy pavement, the circuit also requires balanced cars, which are able to generate ground and traction.

The magnitude of Mercedes’ decision can be measured by the choice of other teams. A Ferrari, for example, he preferred to fly to Monaco. A aston martin and Red Bull too. But the case is that the group led by Toto Wolff he does not have that time and lost the right to make mistakes. Therefore, it is wise to start testing as soon as possible.

And even if the streets of the edge of Mediterranean don’t set up a better place, Mercedes has more to lose than what happened last season and at the beginning of the current one, it needs to change and give a definite direction to the development not only of this car, but also. of what it hopes to be in 2024. ” It is a one-time event, but it will still provide an opportunity to learn about the improvement of the car – it is that we need to be careful not to draw too many conclusions from this one event. . We are taking the first step in a new direction,” said boss Wolff in Monaco.

“It’s not going to be a silver bullet. In my experience, that doesn’t exist in our game. But we hope this package will give pilots a stable and predictable platform. So we can build on that in the coming weeks and months. Right.

lewis hamilton adopted the same speech and ruled out the possibility of a clear result this weekend. “We are grateful to be here, but with these updates, it will be difficult to see how everything will work. I hope this new version brings us closer to Ferrari and Red Bull. I don’t think, however, that we will fight for victory, but I want to be more in the fight”, he said the seven-time champion to the press.

And his words were shared by George Russell – more difficult, so to speak. The Englishman went further in assessing the decision taken by Mercedes and what to expect from the weekend. “I don’t think we’ll learn much at a stage like this. Whatever we take from this weekend, we’re still going Barcelona and a clean sheet, because Monaco has many challenges”, he said, referring to the next F1 stop.

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From initial chaos to updates: what’s behind Mercedes’ W14 ‘B’ in F1 2023

Then Russell explained, “But we wanted to start doing development work right away. It was obviously planned for Immo, but we won’t just stop the updates and not use them. Maybe it’s bold, but we’d use it here anyway.”

Still, the British revealed that what excited him to try the news was the experience in the simulator. “What we’ve tested in the simulator so far has been positive, both aeronautically and technically.”

“We will still have to reassess this throughout the next week. It is a challenge because there are always headlines about our updates, but other teams will also get new parts, especially in Spain. Therefore, we can expect progress from our opponents. After all, we all have the same goals.

At first glance, such a speech may seem strange, because the courage of the team differs from the caution shown by everyone. But this is also a Mercedes hit. In interviews and inside the garage. The team really had to go all-or-nothing, but they needed to take one decisive action at a time, even if that meant spying on the neighborhood.

WHAT HAS CHANGED, ANYWAY?

This time, engineering tried less innovative solutions and sought to better understand the concepts of the competition. Of course, it’s still too early to tell, but from what we saw on the Monaco pit lane, the team started almost from scratch, investing in a new floor structure, chassis, transmission and front suspension. There are those who say that the car also lost weight in this change.

The idea is to try to increase mechanical performance with greater aerodynamic efficiency, a difficult equation within the new rules. The ‘Zeropod’ is completely gone and has given way to a more robust concept. It’s not as sophisticated as Red Bull’s design, but it’s similar to what other grids accept. Of course, it will still take time to read this feature. For now, Mercedes hopes it’s easy to understand.

The sides are more similar to the route taken by the current champion and Aston Martin. All with the aim of gaining strength and balance, but mainly to make the car less mysterious and difficult. Practice on Friday will begin to give an idea of ​​the direction the squad has taken.

In any case, Mercedes seems to have asked the right questions in its review of the W14. Of course, you won’t get all the answers you want in Monaco, but it’s a start, even if it’s 18 months late.

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