Mercedes: Masterplan or misery

Lewis Hamilton at the Australian Grand Prix (Image: Getty Images)

Since the conclusion of the Australian Grand Prix, Mercedes have been working hard on making changes to their team and car in hopes of bridging the gap with the dominant Red Bulls. With a restructuring of the team itself and a new concept for their car, Mercedes is hoping to come back after more than a year of poor performances.

There are many speculations that in the upcoming Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Mercedes will be the new force to be reckoned with and even though there are many changes that would support this statement, the opposite may be true. In 2022, when the new regulations came into effect, Mercedes revealed their car with a significant difference to their competitors - the car had no side pods.

Mercedes came into 2022 with the concept of “zero side pods” in an attempt to outsmart the competition and continue their dominance from previous seasons. However, the 2022 season proved to be one of the worst years for the German team as they only managed to secure one win in comparison to the nine they made the previous season.

There were many reasons for the team’s horrific season but the main one was the “zero side pods”. The bad luck followed Mercedes as they ventured into the 2023 season, with the concepts unchanged.

As a result, team principal and CEO Toto Wolff announced that the team would change the philosophy of its car in the hope that it will become more competitive and achieve the wins that the team are scarce of. The new concept is rumoured to be similar to Red Bull’s dominant car, such as the Aston Martin which has secured three podium finishes in the first three races of the season.

Toto Wolff, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton at the Australian Grand Prix (Image: Getty Images)

Wolff explains that the team is working as hard as they can to produce upgrades that will improve the W11. The team and Wolff will hope that these upgrades will bring them back the success that saw the team win eight consecutive constructors championships and seven consecutive drivers championships.

Wolff said: “We will consistently be bringing upgrades to the car over the next few races, which is something to look forward to. But there is no such thing as a magic bullet that transforms the car, and it's about being realistic with your expectations. Hopefully, we will see a steady improvement."

The team are going to be arriving this weekend, at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the first announced upgrade to the car since the beginning of the season. George Russell, Mercedes’ driver, has spent some time in the simulator and has declared that there are “big changes” to the W14 coming.

Russell said: “Big changes are incoming... Naturally, you can’t get things brought that quickly to the car, but I think in due course, we’ll see some big changes and hopefully, the lap times represent that.

“We’re working hard at the moment with these changes. I won’t give too much away, and we need to make sure they work as expected.

“But as we’ve said several times, we’re probably finding more gains in the past two or three weeks than we found over the whole winter by clearly developing in the wrong window – so it’s heading in the right direction.”

George Russell discussing the team's performance during the press conference (Image: Getty Images)

Mercedes performed poorly in both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. However, during the Australian Grand Prix, Mercedes made a significant move upwards with both drivers qualifying in the Top 3 and Russell leading the race with teammate Lewis Hamilton just behind, marking Mercedes’ first one-two since Brazil last year. Russell later suffered an engine failure, but Hamilton managed to secure the team's first podium of the year with a second-place finish.

Mercedes is hoping to continue the upward trajectory and start competing for pole positions and wins. The team is focused on changing the concept of their car development while also undergoing a technical restructuring with James Allison returning to the role of Technical Director and Mike Elliott becoming the team’s Chief Technical Officer.

This change is in hopes that it will help the team return to winning ways with Allison, who has already proved throughout his career that he is one of the best in the industry, solely focused on improving and updating this year’s car.

James Allison, Mercedes’ Technical Director (Image: Getty Images)

Elliott on the other hand will be taking a more strategic view on Mercedes’ future, mainly focusing on 2026 when F1’s next batch of regulations come into effect. The regulations will see a brand-new engine formula as well as the introduction of 100% sustainable fuel.

This change is only a part of the team’s wider technical restructuring as John Owen, Director of Car Design for Mercedes, will split his role with his deputy Giacomo Tortora, who takes on the role of Engineering Director.

Owen will continue to lead the team’s car design team whereas Tortora will inherit some of the existing duties that Owen was tasked with after the introduction of the cost cap. This change was made to ideally help Owen focus on and work solely on the design of the car for this season and future seasons.

Fans will have the first look at Mercedes’ new upgrades this weekend as they race through the streets of Baku for the first Sprint race weekend of the season that will take place from 28 April-30 April.

Will these changes help the German team in their hopes of securing a ninth constructor’s world championship and an eighth driver’s championship or is the team giving fans another dose of false hope like they did in 2022?