Mercedes Formula 1 team reveal their 2023 livery

Today, the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team unveils our 2023 contender, the Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E PERFORMANCE.

The underlying concept of the W13 has been retained and development focused on core performance areas. That has led to a car that retains the distinctive DNA of its predecessor and introduces a combination of notable changes that are visible on first inspection – such as the gulley bodywork on the engine cover - and others beneath the surface.

The car’s arresting look isn’t limited to the architecture, either. The iconic black livery from 2020 and 2021 has been refined as part of a significant project to reduce overall weight. Driving the W14 will be Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who line up for their second season together, supported by Mick Schumacher in his role as third driver.

“Last year was difficult but it came with lots of learnings,” Toto Wolff commented. “I hope 2023 will be proof that we have understood how to unravel the problems and improve the package of the car.”

“W13 certainly had performance which we never were able to unlock and put all its downforce on the ground. Our car performed very well at the end of the season. However, we still had the famous bouncing at some circuits and the car never gave the drivers good feedback, which limited them in being able to really push. We have tried to keep all the goodness of the W13 and address its weaknesses,” he continued.

The challenge of unlocking the performance in last year’s car, while troubleshooting the problems that the team could address in-season, was met head on by both Brackley and Brixworth. Notably, the development over the year led to a memorable one-two finish at the São Paulo Grand Prix. The progress throughout 2022 excites Technical Director, Mike Elliott.

“Last year, once we had figured out what we needed to do, it took a huge amount of work to get ourselves moving forward. Towards the end of the season, you could see the performance improving and the winter has been a reset. We have done all the things that we wanted to do with the W13 last year but weren’t able to because of resource constraints or because our focus was elsewhere fixing other issues,” he said.

Areas targeted include reducing overall weight, giving the drivers a more consistent car balance across the speed range, and better matching the aerodynamic characteristics to the demands of the aero regulations. This is borne out in areas such as a significantly lighter chassis, revised front suspension geometry, cooling system adjustments and a refined aerodynamic concept based on last year’s learning.

“With this generation of cars, the performance is all in the detail. When you look at the W14, you will see the DNA of the W13 but also a lot of evolution and detail improvement,” Elliott added.

Reliability, correlation, and learning will be the focus when it comes to pre-season testing in Bahrain. With just three days of running before the first race weekend of the season, an efficient and successful test is imperative.

The W14 will be out on tracking in Bahrain on Feb 23 - 25 for pre-season testing, ahead of the first race weekend of the year on 3rd March, also in Bahrain.