Heading into the 2023 season, Mercedes made the bold choice to stick with their zero sidepod design, even after limping to a third-place finish in last year’s championship.
The team believed that this design was not the direct cause of last year’s problems and hoped that by developing this pathway further they would once again be a competitive team.
The Silver Arrows have been proven wrong after only one race however, with Aston Martin copying Red Bull’s design and leapfrogging their engine supplier, proving that Mercedes’ car design is inferior.
Lewis Hamilton has sensationally suggested his team owe him an apology, as he highlighted the issues last season but Mercedes decided not to listen to his advice.
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It has been reported that Mercedes could be ready to give up on 2023 already and focus all of their energy on returning to winning ways in 2024 with a completely different car, as this season’s championship already seems out of reach.
Lewis Hamilton has also been rumoured to leave the team at the end of the season should they not become competitive, with the Brit still yet to sign a contract extension with the team.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has now told the media that claims of Hamilton and Mercedes giving up are not true, suggesting that his team will do everything they can to improve on their poor start to the season.
“As much as being transparent as to how we need to turn the car around, it is not the point to talk about the driver situation in 2024, it’s far too early,” he began.
“We need to all push in the same direction, the drivers, the engineers, all the management rather than throwing in the towel. We have never done that and we will not do it.
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“We just need to really dig deep and deeper than we have ever done and provide both drivers with a car they are able to fight with.”
Wolff has admitted that Mercedes will need to go down a different development path this season if they wish to compete with the top teams, claiming that it was a mistake to begin the season with their current design.
Upgrades for the W14 are not expected to arrive until F1 travels to Imola, leaving Lewis Hamilton and George Russell struggling to battle with their rivals until later in the season.