Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff continues to tease the press about the upcoming W15. The team principal strongly believes the next race car will punch their ticket back to winning races.
Mercedes F1 W15 Unveiling on February 14
Despite being on break from the tumultuous 2023 Formula 1 season, Mercedes-AMG Petronas appears to have already ironed out the scheduled unveiling of the W15. Although we have yet to get confirmation from the team, sources say the new car will debut on Valentine’s Day.
With the lessons gleaned from their winless 2023 run, Mercedes is now on a path to redemption. And it’s starting things off by abandoning the “zeropod” concept that has contributed so much to all their troubles in the past two years.
The W15: A Total Overhaul of the W14
Besides ditching the zeropod design Toto Wolff confirmed that the changes on the W15 will be made from the ground up. Mercedes’ Technical Director refers to them as “a pretty ambitious development.”
Without giving in too many details, Wolff revealed there would be a radical transformation in the car’s weight distribution, aerodynamics, and chassis.
“We have a gap to the leaders,” Wolff said in an interview. “But the two teams, at Brixworth and Brackley, are so motivated. We have so many good things in the pipeline, so many new things, and, with all the learning we had, [we are] really in a good place to see what’s coming together.
“[We have] got to take the momentum now from the P2 in the championship and take the momentum to the factories,” added the Mercedes head honcho.
The F1 community thinks one of the focus of the upgrades will be based on the complaint of Lewis Hamilton regarding the W14’s cockpit. The seven-time champ has constantly pointed out that his positioning in the cockpit has brought him great discomfort during races and he commented it felt like “sitting on the front wheels.” With that, the W15 may push back the cockpit by 5 to 15 centimeters to address the driver’s concerns.
Next on the menu is an overhaul of the transmission system. The rumor mill suggests Merc may be looking to adopt a narrow gearbox similar to the one used by Red Bull this season.
Mercedes F1 in 2023
Mercedes went from dominating races before 2022 to only winning one race in that year. The year 2023 has been the worst so far for the team since 2011’s Ross Brawn era to which it failed to win any race. Despite its disappointing stats for the season, it miraculously emerged as runner-up in the Constructors’ Championship.
The consolatory P2 came at a stroke of luck in Abu Dhabi where George Russell took the podium while Hamilton finished ninth to add the necessary points to keep their lead. Their rivals from Ferrari for the spot, on the other hand, were only three points behind Mercedes F1 mainly due to Carlos Sainz failing to score in the Grand Prix event.