Mercedes abandons 'zeropods' and comes to Monaco with new sidepods
This weekend the Monaco Grand Prix is on the programme. The latest pictures from the pit lane in Monaco show that Mercedes has brought an upgrade to the city-state. These show the German formation is abandoning its innovative 'zeropod' design.
Mercedes had already announced upgrades before the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. These included a new floor, new sidepods and a new front suspension. However, the Italian Grand Prix was cancelled and therefore the introduction of the new parts shifted to the Monaco GP.
New sidepods Mercedes
The first pictures of the new parts on the W14 have already appeared. These show that Mercedes has binned the innovative 'zeropod' design. The air intake of the sidepod now sits higher and below it is an 'air tunnel', which is also included on, for example, the RB19. In 2022, Mercedes' innovative design amazed everyone, but unfortunately for Mercedes, it did not seem to work as well as thought.
In 2023, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell's team stuck to the design, but after disappointing performance, Mercedes is taking a different direction after all, starting from Monaco that is. Team boss Toto Wolff tempered expectations of the upgrade, stating that it will not be a "silver bullet".
Check out the first photo of the new sidepods on this tweet.
Anyone else visualizing the Mercedes development factory like when Saruman was creating that Orc army? :D
Merc are so desperat for win with all the new up dates .be evern more funny if they go over the buget cap with it
It will be funny if Merc go over budget because they already know what their "punishment" will be for spending an extra 5% (minor breach) Funny haha.
Haha, good one. Yeah they can do what Red Bull did. Red Bull first lied and outright denied it. Then when their lie was uncovered, they blamed it on catering, then when that was found to be untrue, they had to come clean. Horner should be sacked if they do it again. Another salmon and caviar sandwich Sir Lewis?
It will be even funnier if Mercedes gets a 10% wind tunnel penalty for a minor budget cap breach, and then not win even with the breach!
Would it really be funny though? Merc have had the least WT time for pretty much the last decade and still dominated the field add to the fact that if they do break the cap we won't find out until the end of next season which means the less WT penalty wouldn't come into play until 2025 which to me seems like a gamble worth taking and I'm pretty sure theres smarter people than me working in Merc.
So when Merc bring updates it's desperation. When other teams do it, it isn't. If Red Bull got over the budget AGAIN, I hope they get all their WCC and WDC points stripped. Then next offence, a 1 season ban. F1 will be so much more a better place.
Rubbish redbull are beating them all fairly they just need to make the car even faster so it looks better for the fans
Your reply makes no sense man. It's not even in context to what you're reply to. Take a breathe and concentrate a little more.
Even funnier if the go over and still don't win any races
They are not completely redesigning the car as it was rumoured. From the news, its just the sidepods and other minor parts. Lets see in Monaco. They will definitely be closer to the budget cap now. If this misfires, expect a lot of complaining from the Mercedes duo.
We already saw one going in to flames in Australia and that wasn't Honda ?.
Its possible. Monaco is the worst circuit to test new car parts. Im sure Mercedes knows that but now they are desperate. I guess they are desperate because they are winless. Hopefully George will get them a win in the future.
Bait bait bait. You're a very bad fisherman Bret. Stick to your meetings with the Red Bull engineers and your red phone to the F1 grapevine.
Wait. Bret is lunch buddies with F1 engineers? I had dinner with Santa Claus last night.
Fish again I'll bet. That's what he served me. :) Tomorrow I've got a meeting with Domenicali. He said he's got something secret to tell me about Abu Dhabi 2021 :D
These included a new floor, new sidepods and a new front suspension. and all within budget caps. sure...
Well, they have to show their numbers. They won't be able to sneak anything past the FIA. So it must be under the budget and with more to come over the season. Mercedes aren't Red Bull. Unless, like Bret, you think you know better than Mercedes about their budget or when they should bring the new updates to the car.
I don't know better. but at RB they were talking about sandwiches being over the budget. Mercedes is bringing almost a new car. I not very good at math but in my opinion...
It's not almost a new car though. Re-profiled sidepods and some suspension changes. Maybe a bit of floor tweaking. Leave it up to Mercedes, I'm sure they did a cost analysis first. As the Red Bull is able to squat lower to the ground than any other teams car, without bouncing, it will always have that edge in speed and cornering. So I don't think Merc will be a threat to Red Bull this year - no-one will. If Newey had written the rules himself, they would have been like what we have now.
Bad idea to bring that into Monaco. Could backfire in Monaco due to testing limitations.......Should have brought it in Canada.
Was that last nights dream? Yes I'm sure you'd like them to wait for Canada ? If you'd said Barcelona, you might have finally made a post with some credibility behind it for once. I'm sure Mercedes have weighed up the pro's and con's already. But if you know better, send them a tweet :)
Not much sleep till sunday.. .everyone questioning mb upgrades....shouldn't they be celebrating poor MB decision making....or is this fear dressed as concern for crashes.....mb not stupid
I think the RB crowd might feel a little threatened because they know what Merc can be capable of. However, I don't think they have to fear or mock. As I've said, the rules are perfectly designed around the RB18/19. If you'd asked Newey himself to write the new rules, this is what he would have come up with. Red Bull have more advantage now than Merc did in 2014. Yet the RB crowd aren't able to celebrate their successes because they're still overly concerned with ragging on Merc and Lewis. Also they know that people will tell them, rightly so, that Max's wins are all paper wins. The reason for which is the same one they've been using against Lewis for years. What goes around..... :)
Interesting claim, sadly the data doesn't agree with your claim. But then again, I didn't expect you to come with a valid claim when it concerns Red Bull.
Agents resort to risky strategies only when they are in the domain of losses. It's called "prospect theory" by Nobel Prize Kahneman and Tversky.
Bringing the car to Monaco isn't a risky strategy though. I mean, in what sense would it be? I would certainly see it as a data collecting exercise, though. However tight and slow Monaco is, there will be useful data Mercedes can gather that they can take to Barcelona. Obviously it's not ideal that we missed Imola and have to wait for Barcelona to see the car take flight, but this is what we have. So lets get this boring parade of a race over with and move to a real racetrack.
With the upgrades they lose. Without the upgrades they lose. So yeah, no risks for Mercedes.
With the upgrades they give themselves more opportunities and hopefully more points which equals more money. I don't think Mercedes are under any illusions about catching a car that had the rules designed around it. A step forward is a step forward and it's one more rung up the ladder.
I didn't expect them to make this big of a change. Interesting. I hear Toto is stating an extra two tenths but that won't be enough so I hope he's verbally sandbagging. :)
Just the beginning of greater things to come. Let's go team Mercedes!!!
@Mike TT, and this is when I point out Redbull poached 50 engineers from Mercedes, and ask, excuse me Sir ,who is actually copying who ?
@Mike TT, you said, Mike tt +770824-05-2023 22:54 Yeah, let's go copy Red Bull. Like everybody else...... "I find this interesting as you have acknowledged that Red Bull has taken 50 or more staff from Mercedes. I am sure that they didn't do that because Red Bull enjoyed their personality or because they were baking good bread at Red Bull, right? Red Bull certainly saw the opportunity to replicate the successes these engineers have had at Mercedes at Red Bull, so if you're going to be honest, that's the most blatant copying on the grandest scale, isn't it? Not so?"
Most of those engineers are in the PU department. RB is setting up their own engine department from 2026 onwards. Officially this is in partnership with Ford, but it looks like Ford will be only working on a relatively small part of it. Even Toto has admitted that if the zero sidepods don't work out (they haven't) , they will be copying RB, and if RB wants "they can put a sticker on it". Toto's words!
@Mike TT, this is very concerning, breaking news 50 Mercedes staff members have forced their way into the Redbull team
Red Bull has the faster car. So they copied Mercedes, and Mercedes ended up with a slower car? Or are you saying that Red Bull will copy Mercedes from today onwards? Because that's the logical thing to do? Copy a SLOWER car? Fixed the typo/swypo
@VeganWarrior, They'll definitely be going somewhere...so far not the direction you have been hoping for. Shame
@F1isback, you sound concerned my friend , don't be, these updates will bring Mercedes closer to Ferrari and AM. Redbull are set to dominate till 2026.
@F1isback, not like Mercedes poached 50 engineers from Redbull right .....now that would a huge compliment right ✅
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