Mercedes have ‘unlocked new potential’ at the factory after seeking a different direction with W14

Toto Wolff has revealed that Mercedes is seeing huge progress in performance at its factory with the new approach.


Mercedes have ‘unlocked new potential’ at the factory after seeking a different direction with W14

Mercedes (Credits: Planet F1)

The Mercedes F1 team has made it known that a lot is going on in its factory as far as improving the performance of its car is concerned. They are seeing huge progress and are optimistic about the future races of the current campaign. Moreover, it is believed that the new concept that the Brackley-based team is developing in its factory does not support a zero-pod design.

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Mercedes brought the zero-pod design concept last year and struggled with one issue or the other throughout the campaign. While they have stuck with their 2022 concept for this year, the Bahrain Grand Prix made Toto Wolff and Co. realize how far back they have fallen compared to their rivals. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell could not keep pace with Red Bull, Ferrari, and Aston Martin in Bahrain.

Since the disappointing outing, people at the factory have adopted a new approach and worked tirelessly. While shedding light on the same, Wolff added, “It is big steps in relative performance to where we are even now, the kind of gains that are coming in, in our R&D and in aero, are much bigger than we’ve had over a long time.

So we’ve unlocked some potential because we are simply looking at things from different angles now. We have a different perspective, because of our learnings of the Bahrain test and race. There was no step back. On the contrary, there were immediately two steps forward.” Toto Wolff has clarified that Mercedes is making significant progress in its factory with the new approach.

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Toto Wolff’s take on Mercedes’ decision to follow a new approach

Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff

When the zero side pod design was brought by Mercedes last year, it was expected to give the team a huge advantage over its rivals. However, since then, things haven’t panned out the way Wolff and Co. ideally would have expected. With the team now committing its resources toward a new approach, Wolff has shed light on why the decision was taken.

While talking about it, he said, “I think the biggest change that we made is actually looking at whether we want to have the car set up in its sweet spot. We’ve been too low last year, and we’ve been too high this year. And now we believe we know what to land on. On the other side, then obviously, everything else follows in terms of floor, and bodywork that you want to achieve.”

So I don’t want to sound too foolishly optimistic, but at least we see low-hanging fruit with things that are encouraging.” Toto Wolff has sounded very positive about what has been happening in the Mercedes factory but has also admitted that he and his team do not want to get carried away as they are aware of the performance deficit, they currently have compared to Ferrari and Red Bull with its W14.

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Taking all this into account, how soon would it be realistically possible for Mercedes to showcase their new concept during a Grand Prix weekend? Everyone is aware that they are supporting the zero side pod in Saudi Arabia, but what about the third race of the season in Australia? Or is it just too early to make any definitive claims?

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