F1 News: Toto Wolff On 2023's Car - "Looks Exactly Like This Year's Car"
Mercedes are looking ahead to the 2023 F1 season and are keeping everything crossed the team will be back to their usual performance. The team had a rocky 2022 season starting off with major porpoising issues which were masking a number of other issues.
It was the first season that seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton did not win a single race in a season, in his whole career. Hamilton had told the team to carry out more of the experiments and data collection on his car than teammate George Russell to give him more of a chance in his first year with the team, which he bagged his first career win in at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Thankfully, the team saw some significant improvements later in the season which has given the team and fans hope for the next season.
Unsurprisingly, Hamilton said at the end of the season that he was happy to see the back of the W13, as will the rest of the team.
Team principal Toto Wolff has spoken about the W14. He said:
"Toto Wolff: "I enter the wind tunnel and say this thing looks exactly like this year's car. But they tell me underneath it is very different. Our car fundamentally changed in the middle of the year - we changed the concept but you couldn't see anything on the surface."
The 2023 season will be starting on 23rd February with pre-season testing and the first race will be in Bahrain on 5th March. The season was planned to consist of 24 races but with the Chinese Grand Prix being cancelled recently, it is not clear as to whether that will be replaced or not.
Mercedes came third in the constructor's championship this year so will be looking to be much more competitive against the 2022 winners Red Bull and runners up Ferrari next year.