Lewis Hamilton ‘anxious’ to see new Mercedes challenger’s on-track behaviour

Lewis Hamilton, who'll hope to get back to winning ways with Mercedes in 2023, is 'anxious' to see how the new car will behave on-track.

Lewis Hamilton ‘anxious’ to see new Mercedes challenger’s on-track behaviour

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes certainly did not have an ideal 2022. On performance, they were squarely third-best. For the first half of the season, this would mostly remain the case. But they showed impressive development, and after the summer break, they were often Red Bull’s closest competition. They were ‘close’ in Zandvoort, Austin, and Mexico City, but really came through in Sao Paulo. There, George Russell led a 1-2 finish.

But for Hamilton, 2022 was still his worst season statistically. After all, it was the first one in which he did not win a single race. At the very least, he would hope to change that in 2023. He’ll be behind the wheel of the W14, which was just recently unveiled. It comes with an almost all-black color scheme – a bid to save weight as much as it is an aesthetic choice.

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Fans will hope that it performs as well as it looks. The season approaches quickly – in less than three weeks’ time, we’ll see the lights go out in Bahrain. For Hamilton, it’s the most exciting part of the year. At the launch of the W14, he said: “This is the most exciting part of the year. Being at the factory this past week, seeing from the tub to all these small elements coming together come out of different parts of the factory and you see it come together and everything fits so beautifully.”

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Lewis Hamilton: F1 drivers are ‘priveleged beyond measure’

The Mercedes, bearing Lewis Hamilton's Number 44 (Image Credit: Mercedes)
The Mercedes, bearing Lewis Hamilton’s Number 44 (Image Credit: Mercedes)

Mercedes have not abandoned their ‘zero-sidepod’ philosophy (which featured on the W13) for this year’s car. However, the inlets are higher up on the W14. It remains to be seen how this choice works out for them. The team will also find out if the porpoising issue is still present (or back) in this year’s car in a shakedown that’s set to be conducted shortly after the launch. Ferrari’s own 2023 challenger, the SF-23, did seem to be bouncing a little bit when Charles Leclerc drove it around Fiorano.

Lewis Hamilton says the team are ‘anxious’ to see how the car behaves. He said: “We’re all anxious to get out there and see how it behaves. And also to see where everybody else is. The other day I kind of freaked myself out. There’s almost eight billion people in the world, and there’s only 20 of us that get to do this, and there’s only two of us that get to drive for this team. So we are so privileged beyond measure. This is the most exciting time, for sure, especially with all the difficulties we had last year.”

As for the audiences, they shall find out how the car behaves when it hits the track in pre-season testing, from February 23-25. Mercedes will also find out there how they stack up against the rest of the grid. For a true taste of how it will perform, fans will have to wait till qualifying in Bahrain.

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