Mercedes continued to struggle with its return to form during this year’s Formula 1 World Championship as it continued to pursue the ‘zero-sidepod’ philosophy that set it apart from its competitors in 2022, but not necessarily in a good way.
The team has won just one grand prix, in Brazil in 2022, over the last two years and has a long way to go to catch up with Red Bull, the team which halted Mercedes’ run of eight Constructors’ titles.
The UK-based team hoped the 2023 season would see it awaken from last year’s nightmare and regain performance compared to the opposition with its new W14, but it was more of the same as Red Bull again accelerated away in dominant fashion, leaving Mercedes in a battle with Ferrari for second place in the championship standings.
‘Over the course of that [2022], we developed a car that had plenty of downforce near the ground that, it turned out, we couldn’t use because of the porpoising that we did not see coming’
James Allison, technical director at Mercedes F1
The W14’s development and competitive lifespan played out during a time of adjustment among the staff at Mercedes’ Brackley headquarters. The F1 teams of today are so large that it is very difficult to blame any individual when things go wrong, but the leadership must ultimately be prepared to take the blame for decisions made.
Musical chairs
What is remarkable about Mercedes is that rather than very public ‘executions’, as so often happens in F1 under such circumstances, the team’s technical director, Mike Elliott, concluded he was not the person best suited to the role he was in, and that it was better to hand that
