Mercedes chief technical officer James Allison has revealed that the Silver Arrows are working on making the W14 “more driveable” for the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with it being a venue that left Lewis Hamilton in particular in agony last year.
It was at the Baku City Circuit last season where Hamilton struggled to climb out of the W13 after the race, due to suffering from extreme back pain as a result of horrific porpoising.
Whilst porpoising isn’t an issue for Mercedes this season, Hamilton has expressed his discomfort when driving the W14, something the team are trying to address.
“We will be doing the normal things,” Allison said in Mercedes’ post-race debrief video after the Australian Grand Prix.
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“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.
“We will be working on the normal sort of simulation loop and routines that allow us to prepare for the race weekends that are coming up, making sure that we land the car in the right place when we get to the race.”
Making Hamilton and George Russell feel comfortable in the car in Baku will be absolutely vital to a good haul of points, given that Azerbaijan will host the first sprint race of the 2023 F1 season.
It means that more points will be available next weekend, whilst the Germans will also have less time to get the W14 in the right window, putting further emphasising on using the current spring break wisely.
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“It’s a big deal at Baku,” Allison added.
“It’s the first Sprint of the weekend 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.”