The German team is preparing to radically change its concept.
Immediately after testing and the first race in Bahrain, it was clear that the W14 was not able to compete with Red Bull. Upon returning to the factory, an urgent meeting was held where a change of concept was considered, i.e. where the design of the smaller side air intakes would be rejected.
Now, according to F1TV technical expert Sam Collins on Weekend Warm-Up, the new 2024 spec car is already in the wind tunnel.
“We saw Mike Elliott who didn’t look happy with that machine. We’ve seen James Allison come back and take a much more active role in the technical department for the development of the car.” Collins said. “There are some things the team can do and one of them is the atomic or flash option for Mercedes and that is to bring a new car to Silverstone.” According to him, stable regulations for the next season are in their favor, which means that they can introduce this version of the car even before 2024.
“It’s quite risky, maybe it won’t happen, but maybe Mercedes will bring a different “B” version of the car to Silverstone. In my opinion, they do not want to keep the current concept as long as possible because they cannot be competitors with Red Bull and Ferrari, which means they will have to change something drastically.”
