Yahoo Autos Mercedes zero-pod concept has failed – where do they go from here?
If the 2022 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix was a shock for Mercedes, then what is this year’s showing? Last year the eight-time consecutive constructor champions began Formula One’s new era with their worst car in a decade. Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth, 0.68sec adrift of pole position. 12 months later, after all the trials of 2022, the lead Mercedes of George Russell was 0.63sec off the pace: an improvement of just five hundredths of a second.
At least last year Hamilton secured a fortuitous podium alongside two Ferraris. On Sunday Hamilton finished fifth and Russell seventh – the team’s worst points total at an opening race since 2013. Worse, not only has the gap to Red Bull grown, now it is not just Ferrari ahead of them but Aston Martin too.
Mercedes learn from 2022, but come to a painful awakening in 2023
Throughout last season Mercedes were defiant, open and honest about their failings but unwilling to be defeated. You would expect this from such a successful team. Through all the physical and emotional pain, they fought through to finally claim a victory at the penultimate race of the year in Brazil.
Speaking to Telegraph Sport not long after the W13 flickered into life at the 2022 British Grand Prix, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin thought it was a matter of time. “The direction we're going in is definitely right,” he said. “It's just a case of how long it will take if we can just keep closing that gap.”
This message, which continued throughout 2022, has changed just three days into the new season. During pre-season Russell said he felt that the W14 was a car that would eventually become a race winner. Team principal Toto Wolff has now dismissed that hope.
“Ultimately, ideas and learning are the things that determine success in this sport,” was another point Shovlin made last year. But are Mercedes’ ideas wrong? And have they been learning the wrong lessons?
