The W13 has now officially been retired by Mercedes, with the team suggesting that while it was not one of their most successful designs in recent years, it could be one of the most important because of the lessons 2022 taught the team.
The major shakeup in regulations at the start of the year gave teams the creative freedom to design a car that could outsmart and outperform the rest, and unfortunately for the Silver Arrows they got it massively wrong.
The W13 was slow from the get go in Bahrain and also struggled with a vicious porpoising problem that was causing their drivers a lot of pain.
The team eventually solved the violent bouncing issue and managed to upgrade their car to the point which it became competitive, even winning a race in Sao Paulo in the latter stage of the season.
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Team principal Toto Wolff has suggested that his team have be brought back down to earth and humbled by the abrupt end to their eight year winning run in the constructors’ championship and has promised fans that the Silver Arrows will do everything in their power to return to the top in 2023.
“[We are] trying to be as transparent as we can,” said the Austrian.
“I think it’s also helpful to give our fans and followers a little bit more insight into how the season developed and panned out. Having said that, I hope that next year before Christmas, when we sit down, we have more positives to pick than this season. That would be nice.
“In any case, what we can promise is that all of us in the two factories and with the support of Germany, we’re going to push flat out to have the best possible result.”
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The major components of the team will remain the same next season, as Lewis Hamilton is set to sign a contract extension in the coming weeks that will be the staff and drivers at Mercedes remain the same.
Wolff has claimed that his team need to take advantage of the situations unfolding around them, as 2023 will see a change in management at Ferrari and Red Bull serve their cost cap penalty.
Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will be hungry to rid the demons of the W13 next year and become regulars on the top step of the podium, where a Mercedes driver truly belongs.