First Look: Mercedes Goes Back to Black for 2023 Formula 1 W14 Livery

• Mercedes hopes the work undertaken with the evolutionary W14 will remedy the faults of its predecessor.

• Mercedes failed to win the Formula 1 Constructors' Championship in 2022, breaking an eight-year streak of success.

• Seven-time champion Hamilton endured the first winless season of his career in 2022 as he was unable to add to his record tally of 103 victories.

The Mercedes Formula 1 team unveiled its W14, the car with which it hopes to re-emerge as a title contender in F1 this year.

Mercedes claimed a record-breaking eight successive world titles from 2014 through 2021 but faltered under revised technical regulations in 2022.

Its recalcitrant W13 was prone to porpoising and while that situation was gradually remedied Mercedes uncovered further flaws with its package. It improved to claim a 1-2 finish in São Paulo, its sole victory of the campaign, as it relinquished its crown to Red Bull Racing and slipped to third in the championship.

The W14, revealed on Wednesday, retains the underlying concept of its predecessor—with its strikingly narrow sidepods—and features a return to the black scheme Mercedes sported in 2020-21.

That has been undertaken predominantly for weight-saving purposes, according to team principal Toto Wolff. It has not been a struggle unique to Mercedes since new regulations were introduced in 2022, with several teams leaving components unpainted this year.

“We have gone with a black livery for the W14 in the name of performance,” said Wolff. “We have explored every opportunity to save weight, and this is true with the livery.

“It harks back to the origin of the Silver Arrows; back then, Mercedes had a white car that was too heavy, so they removed the paint and ran to victory with the silver aluminum showing. We have taken a similar approach. We were overweight last year. This year we have tried to figure out where we can squeeze out every single gram of weight so now history repeats itself.

“Of course, when we changed the livery in 2020 the main driving factor was to support the diversity and equality causes which are always close to our heart. The color black became part of our DNA at that point, so we are pleased to return to it.”

Said Lewis Hamilton: “I love the new livery. It says, ‘we mean business’.”

Hamilton and George Russell will continue to drive for Mercedes in 2023.

Seven-time champion Hamilton endured the first winless season of his career in 2022 as he was unable to add to his record tally of 103 victories. Russell joined Mercedes full-time in 2022, following three seasons at Williams, and captured his maiden win in São Paulo. Former Haas racer Mick Schumacher will provide cover Hamilton and Russell as Mercedes’ reserve driver.

“I’m excited to go racing again,” said Hamilton. “I feel calm, energised, and have my focus sharpened. I’m ready to do what’s necessary to win.”

Russell said: “There’s plenty of anticipation to see if the W14 lives up to our expectations. I’m excited and, while there’s a lot of talk at this point in the season, we now need to see how we perform when the car takes to the track.”

Mercedes explained the work undertaken with the evolutionary W14 to remedy the faults of its predecessor.

“After eight years of winning World Championships and then having a poor year, many might expect that we would be tearing up the drawings and starting again but that’s not the case,” said technical director Mike Elliott.

“We believe there was a lot of goodness in the W13, along with some things that we didn’t like. For the W14, it’s about taking that goodness and carrying it forward, and correcting the issues that we had in the W13.

“With this generation of cars, the performance is all in the detail. A lot of that detail is in the floor, so it is not very visible to the fans. When you look at the W14, you will see the DNA of the W13 but also a lot of evolution and detail improvement. That may surprise some people but in all the testing we have done, we have seen no reason to move away from our concept. The problems that we faced last year, particularly with the bouncing, were not a result of the geometry of the car.

“Overall, I think you will see the DNA of the W13 but also a lot of evolution and detail improvement.”

Under the ongoing engine freeze Mercedes has naturally focused its power unit work on reliability gains and has also made changes to the base of the engines—making them more robust—in case porpoising reoccurs.

“We do find problems from time to time, and when the engines came back at the end of last season, we found a few things that were not quite what we would want to see,” said Mercedes High Performance Powertrains managing director Hywel Thomas.

“There are also still opportunities with the software, calibrations, and the way that we run the engines to get that last bit of performance out of it. Getting all that work done is always a challenge and it’s been no different this year.”

Wolff expressed hope that the W14’s performance will prove “2022 was just a blip” and that it can return to contending for the title.

“At the start of any new season, our hopes and expectations are always to be capable of fighting for a World Championship,” said Wolff. “Racing at the front requires resilience, teamwork, and determination. We face up to every challenge, we put the team first, and we will leave no stone unturned in the chase for every millisecond.

"This year, we are going all in to get back in front.”