Welcome to the W14 in Mercedes F1 2023. For Formula 1 2023, the silver arrow has turned black.
During Monday stables such as McLaren and Aston Martin presented their cars, yesterday Ferrari followed up with a presentation and blackmail, and today Mercedes presents its competition to the WC in F1 2023.
What we notice immediately is that Mercedes is back in black and so is the stable to save weight. Large parts of the car are not even painted, but carbon fiber.
This is a fairly typical Mercedes. It is said that the first Silver Arrow, in the 1930s, appeared because the car was too heavy in kilograms. They chose to scrape off the white paint during the night. This caused the car to be aluminum-colored – i.e. silver. Hence the name. silver arrow.
– The car weighed a lot last year. This year we really tried to remove every extra gram, history repeats itself, says team boss Toto Wolff.
Mercedes F1: 2023 black
The new, lighter, black livery would follow in the footsteps of the W05 through to the W12, all of which were very successful.
– The past year was very difficult, but we learned a lot, says Wolf.
– I hope that 2023 will be proof that we understand where the problems are, that we have solved them and that we have been able to improve the whole package. There was clearly potential in the W13 that we never realized, although the car did well at the end of the season. We had issues with porpoises on some of the tracks and the car wasn’t able to give the drivers the feedback they wanted. It kept them from really pushing the car forward. We have tried to retain all the advantages of the W13 and correct the areas that were weaker.
Will Lewis Hamilton win his eighth world title?
The stable retains the core concept from W13 and focused on developing core areas. According to the stable, this has resulted in the car retaining its DNA from 2022, with a host of notable changes, including the bodywork and bonnet.
Our hopes and expectations are that we will join and fight for the WC title. At the same time, our competitors were strong last year and we’re the ones chasing them, Wolf explains in terms of the presentation.
Head coach Mike Elliott is also feeling good:
– Last year, once we understood what we were going to do, a lot of work was required to develop the car forward. At the end of the season, things got better and winter was a resumption. We did everything we wanted to do last year, but couldn’t do it because we lacked resources or were too focused on other things.
Lewis Hamilton is now aiming for a World Cup number eight and George Russell is performing his second season in the stable. Behind them, Mick Schumacher supports as the third driver.
The big question now is how much we will miss James Fowles. He is the new team manager at Williams.
Sportbladet launches F1 Bible
In this week’s episode of Sportbladet’s F1 podcast, Plattan i Mattan, we talk about the top five teams to launch their cars, answer a couple of questions for readers and tell some anecdotes.
I listen.
In addition, I tell you the news that Sportbladet has made the bible of Formula 1 and will be on sale in stores from February 22nd. Before every year I get asked if we should do the Formula 1 bible, and now we’ve done it. I really hope you will buy it, so I have a chance to make more in the future. By clicking on the link in this sentence, you can view some of the differences found in the 2023 F1 Bible.
There are calendars, tracks, expert tips, exclusive interviews and we also have a section on IndyCar, where I spoke to Marcus Ericsson, as well as an article on Dino Beganovic and his road to Formula 1. I really hope you like it.
Those of you who are wondering what I do in the off-season don’t have to wonder anymore 😉