It wasn’t a great start to the season for Mercedes, but as the premiere shows, the year could be over… Lewis Hamilton, via the BBC, has criticized this year’s W14 car’s design philosophy, aiming his arrows straight at its responsible team team.

After eight years of dominance and last year’s terrible W13 failure, everyone at Mercedes (including Hamilton) has expressed their belief that the team will bounce back in 2023.

All of this, of course, went awry after the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain, as the promising W14 was well behind Red Bull, Ferrari and even Aston Martin, finishing in 5th place, a full 50 seconds behind the first.

In just one lap of qualifying, and also during last Sunday’s race, two Mercedes cars were, let’s say… ridiculed mainly by Alonso’s Aston Martin, which has an engine, gearbox and rear suspension, Mercedes… Although the General company manager Toto Wolff admitted that his team would only become truly competitive again if it made radical changes to the concept of its car. Tests in Bahrain opened up new possibilities, the main problem of which was the downforce of the car.

The Mercedes exhibited flaws that even a non-aerodynamicist would have noticed, such as thin bodywork, tiny side beams, and exposed floor surfaces that set it apart from other cars.

While the vast majority of the downforce generated by a modern F1 car comes from the bottom of the car, it’s clear that Mercedes’ approach to building it is different than any other team’s.

The W14 is quite competitive in low-speed corners and on the straights, but in high-speed corners, where downforce matters the most, the car is disappointing.

“I’ve driven so many cars in my life that I know what a car needs and doesn’t,” Hamilton said bitterly, while Wolf added:

“Based on our competitive ambitions, it was a shame to fall behind. We don’t want to finish second, we want to win. But there is one group that is far away. They play with the competition, they don’t even wear out their tires. After the first race, I also believe that they will win every race this year.”

The British driver is said to have liked the latter’s comments and fueled rumors that his contract will not be renewed for 2024.

“After such a difficult year as in the past, I am still here. And if this year we have the same difficult year, I will be here again. I am a fighter and we fight as a team. I still think I can take the car to a point where maybe others can’t and I love the challenge. Of course, I would like to start the season with a great car, but the main thing is the journey. There is nothing holding us back about my contract, I have always felt very, very calm about it. I don’t think this should happen even for a second. I am in a very fortunate position. It will happen when we are ready. I have a great relationship with Toto and Mercedes and we fully support each other. I’m very proud of the work we do on and off the track and everything we can achieve. We will get to where we want to go, ”Hamilton emphasized, amused by the impressions.

Mercedes has been experimenting with alternative ideas in its computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research over the past year. Now Wolf’s patience with this approach seems to be wearing thin, and he admitted: “I don’t think this package will be competitive after all. In the winter, we gave it our all, and now we need to regroup, sit down with engineers who are not dogmatic, and decide which direction is better. I’m sure we can win this season, but in the medium and long term we need to think about what decisions we need to make.”

It is now clear that no one in the team believes that Mercedes is up for something this year. Bahrain may have been one of the 23 circuits of the season, but it has to be… world-historic events to make a big difference in 2023.