Mercedes W14

Team Principal Toto Wolff claims that the W14 will have "different DNA" to the W14's predecessor,[5] the Mercedes W13, after a challenging 2022 campaign that had seen them out of the World Championship battle. The W14 was designed with a higher ride height with the aim to reduce porpoising. However, the car proved to be less competitive than expected at the start of the season, causing key figures in the Mercedes team to question the effectiveness of the car's concept.

At the launch, held on 15 February 2023, the W14 was revealed to have a black livery, much like its predecessors, the Mercedes F1 W11 of 2020 and the W12 of 2021, but unlike those aforementioned cars, the black livery on the car is not being primarily used to promote diversity, but to save weight after the team admitted to struggling with excess weight with its 2022 car, the W13, which had a traditional silver-painted livery. The black colour was created by leaving some parts as unpainted raw carbon whilst others are painted matte black.[6]

In Bahrain, the season opener of 2023, Russell out-qualified teammate Hamilton by starting 6th, while the latter qualified 7th.[7] In the opening laps, Hamilton was already in 5th place and would finish the race in that position, while Russell inherits Hamilton's starting position with the Aston Martin car of Lance Stroll separating them.[8] In Saudi Arabia, Mercedes had a mixed qualifying session with Russell qualified 4th, while Hamilton qualified in a frustrating 8th place.[9] During the race, Hamilton would finish in 5th, while Russell finished 4th.[10] In Australia, the W14 looked to be competitive around Albert Park with Russell and Hamilton achieving 2nd and 3rd in qualifying.[11] During the race, Russell made an excellent start and inherits the lead from Verstappen, hanging on to it until lap 6 until he pitted with teammate Hamilton inheriting the lead. Verstappen would eventually overtake Hamilton for the lead on lap 12. Russell's race was cut short with a powertrain problem as he retired from the race on lap 18. Hamilton eventually finished the race in 2nd place, achieving W14 and the team's first podium finish of the season.[12] Both Mercedes drivers would finish on the points for the next two races in Azerbaijan and Miami. But neither of the drivers finished on the podium in the aforementioned races.[13][14]

After struggling to match the frontrunning pace of Red Bull Racing and Aston Martin in the first five rounds of the season a major upgrade package was introduced for the Monaco Grand Prix, the team having initially planned to run the upgrades for the first time at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola - but this race was ultimately cancelled due to flooding in the Emilia Romagna region.[15] The upgrades would make their debut as planned at the Monaco Grand Prix; the biggest change within the upgrade reintroduced the sidepods ditched on the previous season's car.[16][17][18] The following weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix, the car achieved its first double podium finish with Hamilton finishing in 2nd and Russell in 3rd, after the latter recovered from 12th.[19] On 7 June, the team's reserve driver, Mick Schumacher drove the W14 for Pirelli tyre test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.[20]

In Canada, Hamilton continued his podium finish streak by finishing 3rd, while Russell had to retire.[21] In Austria, the Mercedes duo endured a difficult weekend with Russell finishing 7th, and Hamilton in 8th after being handed a 10-second time penalty for exceeding track limits by the stewards.[22] Hamilton could be found frustrated with the W14 apparent lack of performance. Toto Wolff, Mercedes' Team Principal who rarely spoke to the drivers during the race promptly told Hamilton on the radio that "the car is bad, please drive it."[23]

However, the Mercedes duo bounced back in their home turf in the British Grand Prix, with Hamilton again finishing 3rd and Russell in 5th.[24] On 22 July, the W14 achieved its first pole position of the season - and Lewis Hamilton's first since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix - at the Hungarian Grand Prix.[25][26] However during the race, Hamilton immediately lost out on the lead to Verstappen. He would end up finishing outside the podium in 4th, while Russell finished in 6th.[27] Belgium was the last race before the season headed into summer break. The Mercedes duo had a repeat of their results from Hungary, with Hamilton and Russell once again finishing 4th and 6th.[28]

After the summer break, the season resumed with the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort. George Russell qualified 3rd. However, Hamilton was knocked out in Q2 after being impeded by Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri, meaning he started the race from 13th on the grid.[29] During the race itself, Mercedes made the fatal mistake of staying out too long on the slicks, while it started to rain. In the end, Hamilton recovered from 13th to finish in 6th, while Russell finished in a frustrating 17th place.[30] Team principal Wolff, labeled the strategy they made as "catastrophic."[31]