The German producer was within the hunt for victory in Singapore final weekend as a technique masterstroke gave George Russell and Lewis Hamilton a shot at grabbing the win late on.
Though it finally missed out as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ended Crimson Bull’s successful streak, the potential proven across the Marina Bay circuit confirmed that Mercedes has made good progress in bettering its 2023 automotive after a tough begin to the season.
Twelve months in the past, Mercedes was inspired with the event path of its W13 and, after a victory in Brazil, it felt assured sufficient to stay with its automotive idea in to this 12 months – which proved to be a flawed alternative.
However though the W14 is now selecting up kind, crew boss Toto Wolff has stated that there is no such thing as a hesitation in Mercedes transferring in a very totally different path for 2024 – particularly primarily based on the nice suggestions that it’s getting from its 2024 W15 growth.
“We’ll throw this one within the bin when it is actually quick after which embark on a brand new journey,” stated Wolff.
“We now have encouraging indicators from the tunnel of a balanced automotive that is going to be extra collectively, and we’ve solutions to our questions. So, we’re actually trying on the outcomes with an encouraging perspective.”
One of many ongoing points that Mercedes has confronted with the W14 is that it may be fairly unpredictable – each when it comes to how properly it performs every weekend and in addition in its dealing with out on observe, with Hamilton labelling it the “hardest car that I’ve ever driven to get right” after qualifying in Singapore.
Wolff stated that Mercedes nonetheless had a lot to be taught from it all through the rest of the 2023 season, because the crew bids to seize at the very least one win.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14
Photograph by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
“That is nonetheless for us slightly little bit of a shock field,” he stated. “Each studying that we’ve this 12 months goes to be invaluable subsequent 12 months – however clearly no person is engaged on the present vehicles anymore.”
The unpredictability of the W14 is without doubt one of the the explanation why Wolff suspects that the automotive will get higher all through every race weekend, as a result of it takes its drivers so lengthy to get snug with how it’s going to behave.
Talking earlier this month concerning the attribute, Wolff stated: “The automotive continues to be so delicate and tough to arrange that we’d like extra classes to get on high of it.
“Since you [the drivers] do not know what the automotive goes to do while you flip in, it is a matter of gaining confidence over these classes. And the longer we run, the higher we get, the extra we will high quality tune the instruments and that helps.”
Mercedes is about to convey an replace bundle to america Grand Prix in a bid to assist its push to attempt to seize a victory this season.