Mercedes ‘won’t deviate significantly from W13’ for 2023 car and hold new porpoising view | F1 | Sport
Mercedes will not ‘deviate significantly’ from their W13 vehicle design despite their 2022 troubles, according to Formu1a.com. Mercedes endured all sorts of issues in the previous Formula 1 campaign, after struggling to adapt to new regulations put into place by the FIA.
More specifically, a key problem during 2022 proved to be porpoising, with both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell complaining about the issue throughout the campaign. Their problems saw the Silver Arrows miss out on their first constructors’ title for the first time since 2013 after finishing third behind Red Bull and Ferrari.
In spite of these problems though the eight-time constructors’ champions are set to not deviate too much from their 2022 model ahead of the new campaign. Discussing changes at the end of last season team principal Toto Wolff said: “The DNA of the 2023 car will be different from that of the current car, as we will change the architecture.
“But it does not necessarily mean that our chassis will look very different from that of the W13.” Following Wolff’s comments, reports have suggested that Mercedes are set to stick with their zero sidepod concept on their 2023 car.
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“We’ve obviously got some downforce, we just need to build a much more efficient car. And I think everybody in the team knows exactly what are the problems, and where they are, and where we’ve gone wrong and I’m pretty confident that they’re not going to build the next car with any of those characteristics.
“So I’m looking forward to the end of Tuesday, which is the last time I have to drive this thing. And I don’t ever plan to drive this one again. It won’t be one of the cars that I request to have in a contract!”
