After a difficult season with a tricky car which saw the team score only one race win in 2022, Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes will go into the 2023 Formula 1 season “a lot more grounded” and with a different mindset compared to 12 months ago.
Photo Credits: Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team
Lewis Hamilton’s 2023 Formula 1 car was presented on Wednesday, as Mercedes unveiled their new W14, the second of its ground-effect era of cars, which the team hopes will be a marked improvement over its flawed predecessor, the W13, which despite its problems still delivered aa 1-2 finish for the team at the São Paulo GP.
But as the team looks forward to a new chapter in 2023, it remains cautious with its approach and “a lot more grounded” following the difficulties of 2022, according to Hamilton:
“I think this year everyone is a lot more grounded, more of the approach that we perhaps won’t be the fastest out the gate, but hopefully we’ll be closer and hopefully have the potential to close the gap early on in the season.”
The team showed a car that maintained some of the key philosophies from last year, most notoriously the ‘zero-pod’ sidepod concept, which again differs from most teams that are converging to one design philosophy – similar to Red Bull’s 2022 challenger – after one season of the brand-new ground-effect based cars.
Hamilton emphasized that the Brackley squad isn’t the kind to have “copied other people” and that will still be the case in the new season, as it will “stick with it” and try to make its car work in the best possible way with its own ideas and developments, stating that he has “confidence” his team will do a good job:
“I don’t believe we’ve ever been a team that copied other people.
“We’ve always been of our own mind and always been a team that’s incredibly creative and innovative and liked to do it our way. And I think this worked in the past.
“You can see a lot of the cars are converging to what the Red Bull looked like, except the Ferrari maybe. Last year we arrived and thought the car looked quick – and it wasn’t, with all the issues that we had.
“We’re coming into another season with a car that’s kind of similar-looking in many respects, because some of the elements are really hard to change. But you just have to have confidence in the engineers, and I do.
“So we’re sticking with it, we’re going with it and I hope when we get in it has the characteristics that we’ve asked for. But if not, then we’ll find a way.”
And whilst the team hopes to have fixed its issues from the previous year, the seven-times champion says the squad is prepared to make changes and work “diligently” towards a solution of potential issues.
He also highlighted how the drivers’ input will be crucial to discovering any potential problems, given his similarity in driving style with team-mate and race winner George Russell making “clear straight away” what the limitations are:
“The job of the engineers and the designers is to come up with solutions. So we’ll prepare for ‘what if?’
“You don’t have a crystal ball, you never know what is up ahead. All you can do is prepare yourself in the present and just work diligently towards solving whatever the issue is.
“The great thing is I think we’ve got two strong drivers and kind of similar driving styles so I think it will be clear straight away if there are issues, what those issues will be,” he said. “And I think the guys understand the car much more to be able to deal with it.”
Of the things he wanted retained from the 2022 car, the Briton pointed out the strong reliability of the W13 – he endured only one mechanical DNF in 2022, at the final race in Abu Dhabi – and its good race pace, that was often better than its qualifying form. But he was clear he wants the other areas to undergo a “redesign”:
“Our long-run pace was very strong last year. And also our reliability,” he said.
“So, those two are the things that I think we really want to hold onto. But all the other stuff we want to reinvent and redesign and hopefully see a more efficient car.”
Whilst the team’s all-black livery for 2023 is more about weight saving than sending a message about diversity and inclusion like it was in 2020, the topic remains a hot point of discussion following the FIA’s clampdown on drivers making political statements on grand prix weekends in 2023.
Hamilton, the most vocal driver when it comes to making statements and fighting against social, environmental, and human rights issues, has expressed his displeasure at the new rule, stating that “nothing will stop” him from speaking out on issues he feels “passionate” about.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” he said about the new rule proposed by the FIA. “But nothing will stop me from speaking on the things that I feel that I’m passionate about and issues that there are.
“I feel the sport does have a responsibility still to always speak out on things, to create awareness and on important topics.
“Particularly as we’re travelling to all these different places, and so nothing changes.”
