The past decade has been filled with Mercedes dominance, as the Silver Arrows spent eight consecutive years being almost untouchable in the constructors’ championship.
This winning run came crashing down last year however, as the team struggled to a third-placed finish without ever really being able to lay a glove on eventual winners Red Bull.
The team have been very honest about their shortcomings, explaining that they got the physics surrounding the major regulation changes completely wrong, hence why they suffered from such severe porpoising problems at the start of the season.
Towards the end of the season the team managed to apply some major upgrades to the struggling W13, finally making the car competitive and able to challenge for race wins.
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This late resurgence will give the team the confidence that they can come out of the blocks competitive this season, having learned from last year’s mistakes.
Former F1 driver Gerhard Berger has echoed these thoughts, suggesting that Mercedes will be in the title race this year.
“I do expect Mercedes to make a comeback this season,” he said via The Express.
“They took an aggressive approach to 2022 and it didn’t quite work out. Which happens.
“But they now know where the problems lie and they can tackle them to play a role in the championship again.”
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Lewis Hamilton will be hoping that his team can provide him with a car capable of winning a record breaking eighth world championship, after he recently admitted that like every athlete, he dreams of retiring as a world champion.
At the age of 38, the Brit does not have too much time left to surpass Michael Schumacher in the all time championship winners list, meaning that his ‘greatest of all time’ status potentially depends on how much the Silver Arrows have learned from their 2022 failures.
The W14 is set to be unveiled by the team on February 15th but with team expected to sandbag in pre-season testing, fans may not get a true understanding of how much Mercedes can achieve until the 2022 season gets underway at the Bahrain Grand Prix.