F1 team introductions: Mercedes dreams of returning to the top! What are its chances for this season?

The start of the long-awaited 74th Formula 1 season is just a few days away. So it’s high time to introduce the teams that will take part. For the next part of our series, we’ll be looking at a team that has made history in the sport over the past few years as one of the most dominant brands of its time. We’re talking about Mercedes, who lost their status as an almost invincible stable when new regulations were introduced. Last season, it had to settle for third place overall in the Constructors’ Cup. Can the German cars return to the limelight in 2023?

Mercedes in 2022

Anyone who, between the 2014 and 2020 seasons, disregarded Formula 1 because of Mercedes’ seemingly never-ending dominance and decided to check the current state of affairs out of curiosity must now wonder very much where the team ended up with such convincing performances just a few years back.

Mercedes went through purgatory last season. Everyone assured themselves and everyone else before the start of 2022 that a team of that calibre would not be caught out by the advent of new technical rules and would remain at the front of the grid. A shocking solution in the form of almost non-existent sidepods suggested this at first.

Purely statistically speaking, Mercedes held their own among the top three teams, but it wasn’t the Mercedes we’ve been used to all these years. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and young gun George Russell, who replaced proven wingman Valtteri Bottas, did record seventeen podium finishes.

But only one victory landed in their laps. A large part of the said podiums came only thanks to the retirements of the Red Bull and Ferrari cars.

However, their form at the end of the season promised a gradual return to the top. The double at the VC of Brazil gave hope to all fans that the engineers were finally getting to grips with the W13 concept car. And that this was just a transitional year and Mercedes would be back on top from this season onwards.

Betting on experience

Unlike several teams in the field, Mercedes opted for no changes in the driver line-up. The German stable will begin its eleventh season with Hamilton while retaining the services of Russell, whose performances last year didn’t really surprise anyone.

The King’s Lynn native has already impressed everyone around him during his time at Williams. Add to that a fantastic win in the Brazilian GP, and it’s no wonder Mercedes potentially see him as their next star.

On the other hand, it doesn’t look like we’ll be saying goodbye to Hamilton any time soon. The 38-year-old Briton continues to be in excellent form and has made it clear on several occasions that he is not yet looking to retire from racing.

Back to the Black Arrows, W14 characteristics

The Brackley stable unveiled their car on 15 February. The most noticeable change to the W14 was the switch from the longer-term traditional silver livery to black, which Mercedes cars ran in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

But let’s leave aside the colouring of the monoposto and move on to the structural side of the new W14, which can be considered more of an evolution of last year’s challenger. This year’s Mercedes has retained the narrow side skirts and highly exposed rear floor.

However, Mark Hughes for F1’s official website has noticed changes to the lower part of said side skirts, which have thickened in the nose and which have lengthened towards the rear. Overall, they are no longer directly adjacent to the engine cover.

In addition, Mercedes has adopted the solution of higher radiators. We can see a cooling “tube” that extends from the end of the halo and continues towards the rear of the car.

This, according to Hughes, indicates that Mercedes has chosen the path of evolution rather than revolution with the W14. It looks like it has decided to stick to its monoposto design rather than going the Red Bull or Ferrari route. It makes sense, any significant change to the concept car would essentially require Mercedes to start from scratch, which is out of the question given the pace of development for the others.

The RacingNews365 website went on to describe minor changes to the front wing, or rather its flaps, which are now joined together. The chambers at the bottom of the nose have been enlarged, which should bring more air under the car.

Finally,

Mercedes had a bitter last season by its standards. If a team doesn’t make it through the first year of the new regulations, it’s often hard for such a stable to climb back to the positions they were used to.

For one of the most successful brands in F1 history, however, the previous sentence doesn’t necessarily apply. Mercedes undoubtedly has some very skilled engineers and mechanics under its belt. What’s more, the driving pairing of Hamilton and Russell is arguably the best of them all, which bodes well for a continuation of a very strong finish to last season for Mercedes.

The German carmaker is thus likely to start the 2023 season behind Red Bull and Ferrari, but we can’t rule them out of a potential podium or race-winning battle at all.

Sources: F1, RacingNews365, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1