Mercedes sceptical about 2023 Formula 1 title chances after ‘complete disaster’ in 2022

Mercedes finished third in 2022 but expected to be title contenders again this season, though team are keeping feet on the ground; Team boss Toto Wolff says porpoising from W13 car was “breaking our engines”; F1 2023 starts with pre-season testing on February 23

Mercedes remain sceptical about their 2023 Formula 1 title chances despite the strong finish to the “complete disaster” of a 2022 season.

After an unprecedented run of eight straight constructors’ titles, Mercedes shockingly dropped to third in the standings last year after struggling with their all-new car concept – though the Silver Arrows’ encouraging form at the end of the season has seen them tipped to bounce back in 2023.

Mercedes were Red Bull’s greatest threat ahead of Ferrari after the summer break while their only race win came in the penultimate race.

The team, though, insist they are not getting their hopes up for this season given the gap that still remained between themselves and Red Bull, who won every other post-August race, at the end of 2022.

“I think the interesting thing is how we move forward from here,” said technical director Mike Elliott in a season review with team boss Toto Wolff and powertrains chief Hywel Thomas.

“I think we’ve got to maintain that scepticism and be honest with ourselves that we were behind at the end of the year.

“And while I think that we’ve made good progress through the year and I am really pleased with the culture I have seen and the attitude, we will only see the return on that next year.”

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Speaking in Sky F1’s season review, pundit Karun Chandhok says that out of every team next year, Mercedes’ car will look the most different at pre-season testing.

Wolff agreed that 2022 felt like a “complete disaster” of a season but there were positives.

“For me the perspective or the planning is not about the short-term, it’s not about a race, even a season or two or five,” he said.

“It’s about I would like this team to constantly develop to be chasing for race victories and championships every single year but not taking it for granted, not having any sense of entitlement and if I hear us talking it almost sounds like the complete disaster of all seasons… it felt like it and I think this is the right feeling.

“But we finished third in the Constructors’ Championship, we were very close to Ferrari, we won a race, we had 10 plus podiums. Whatever happens at the beginning of next season it’s going to be another building block for the success of this team.

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Mick Schumacher speaks after his move to Mercedes as reserve driver for 2023 having lost his seat at Haas.

“We are trying to be as transparent as we can.”

There are few changes to the 2023 cars meaning a major pecking order shake-up – as we saw last year with the rule changes – is unlikely, although Mercedes are confident about their new car with a new “DNA”.

Wolff added: “What we can promise is that all of us here in the two factories [Brackley and Brixworth], with the support of Germany, we are going to push flat out to have the best possible result and the same kind of scrutiny on our performance will help us going forward as human beings, as managers and also as a team.”

Bouncing W13 car ‘broke our engines’

The biggest problem for Mercedes with their W13 car from 2022 was the porpoising – the violent bouncing they suffered worse than most and what was undetected in their simulations.

While that mostly affected the aerodynamics and speed, Wolff, who also highlighted the engine freeze (which prevented performance updates) as a hurdle, revealed that the bouncing was “breaking” the team’s Power Units.

Speaking to Thomas and praising his work in the circumstances, Wolff said: “We came out at the beginning of the season with some wobbles on the power unit as well.

“We didn’t like certain aspects of the deployment or the drivability of the Power Unit.

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Craig Slater catches up with Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Sergio Perez as they celebrate their F1 titles in Milton Keynes.

“And whilst in a frozen environment you and your team were able to really add on performance, cope with the difficult environment of a bouncing car that was breaking your engine and still we were super reliable, and the engine was performing very well towards the middle of the season and the end.”

Expanding on the unexpected issues from the porpoising, Thomas said they were taking a “pounding”.

“It was becoming very clear that the bottom of the engines were taking a hell of a pounding,” he added.

“I think when you came up to Brixworth last week you saw some of the parts that were off the race engines, and it was quite a surprise to see exactly how hard they were being hit by the ground.

“You know when you see Lewis [Hamilton] and George [Russell] looking a bit uncomfortable getting out of the cars, the PUs were doing much the same.”