Mercedes today completes the planned work program with the 100 km filming day at Silverstone after the difficult start of the W14 in yesterday’s demo day. The Brackley-based team followed the plans that Ferrari had carried out a day early at Fiorano with the SF-23: carrying out the 15km shakedown yesterday and allowing itself the opportunity to deliberate the car that will be sent for testing in Bahrain.
The debut of the W14 after the static presentation was not easy: a problem in the starting system of the power unit delayed the planned plans by an hour and forty minutes, but then once the problem was solved, the result of an assembly not perfect, the engine ran regularly to start the 2023 season on the track.
George Russell, Mercedes W14
Photo by: Mercedes-AMG
The black arrow is busy again at Silverstone where the weather is changeable: overcast skies but no rain and a maximum temperature of 12 degrees, making it difficult to get the Pirelli demo tires up to temperature. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will split the day with 50km to go each, including the planned commercial shoot.
The team is also expecting the first indications from the pilots after a first taste of the W14 which has maintained the same aerodynamic trend of the “zero pods” bellies despite having revised some concepts: the mouth of the radiators is vertical, high and narrow, so there is no ‘is the opening under the side like on Red Bull and Ferrari to bring the flow to the bottom.
Toto Wolff believes that is not the area of the car where performance is extracted, although Mike Elliott’s technical group is ready to introduce modifications on the W14 if the results of the first races are not in line with expectations by adapting the shapes of the alongside with less extreme solutions.
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