Mercedes will not want to be reminded of the 2022 season anytime soon, having seen their eight-year winning run in the constructors’ championship come to a crashing end with a third place finish this year.
The W13 will remain on show in the reception of the Silver Arrows’ headquarters to remind employees of how difficult times can get, such were the shortcomings of their 2022 car.
A major porpoising problem saw the team lose half a season of performance development, as putting an end to the violent bouncing became the priority for the team due to the pain it was causing both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
The team are confident of righting the wrongs of 2022 next season, with Toto Wolff claiming that his team know exactly where they went wrong, with the physics surrounding the new era of Formula 1 baffling Mercedes engineers early on.
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Former Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has suggested that the change in scenario at Mercedes could benefit the team’s chances of returning to winning ways in 2023, with the team now having a new level of motivation following their recent failures.
“The pressure has come off the team a little but now because it is accepted they are not the best and fastest at the moment and now they are the ones chasing the best, which is a bit of a different situation,” he explained.
“So now the hunt is on so actually, for Mercedes, they are massively motivated and they have this clear target: beat that Red Bull next year and get them over the winter. That is a huge driving force.
“So Mercedes mentally will be really strong over the next couple of months and going into next year.”
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Mercedes might not have a better chance to leapfrog Red Bull than next season, as the energy drink giants will be feeling the effects of the punishment for breaching the 2021 budget cap.
The team will have ten percent of their wind tunnel testing time taken away from them, alongside a $7m fine, and if Christian Horner’s claims are to be believed, this could cost the team up to half a second of lap time compared to their rivals.
Lewis Hamilton will also have a higher level of motivation in 2023, after going winless for the first time in his career and having to watch his new teammate George Russell stand on the top step and Brazil and beat him in the drivers’ championship.