Mercedes is hopeful that its continued development of the W14 Formula 1 car will allow it to fight for race wins by the end of the 2023 season.
As was the case in 2022, Mercedes has started the current campaign on the back foot and is unable to challenge for at the front of the field.
It abandoned the ‘zero sidepod’ concept it adopted at the start of last year when new technical regulations came into play.
Mercedes introduced upgrades in Monaco as part of a new development path and is set to unleash the second major update at the British Grand Prix next month.
Red Bull has dominated the 2023 season so far, taking all eight race wins on offer – but Mercedes is hoping that it will reel the Milton Keynes-based squad in by the end of the year.
“I think we are always conscious of the fact that we haven’t produced a car that we want to produce,” said Mike Elliott, Mercedes’ Chief Technical Officer.
“We haven’t produced a car that you want us to produce and actually it is really nice to be now racing at least for podiums, being able to show what we are capable of doing, and hopefully giving you some enjoyment to be had watching our races.
“And hopefully we can turn that into more upgrades, more performance over the races to come and hopefully start fighting for some victories by the end of the season.”
Having shown strong pace at the Spanish and Canadian Grands Prix, Elliot believes that Mercedes’ positive form will continue at the upcoming rounds in Austria and the UK.
“Having said that Canada was going to be difficult for us, it’s a bit difficult to stand here and say it is hard to say [what tracks will suit the car] because we made a prediction about Canada,” he said.
“But I think it’s always difficult to know. I think where we have seen the car struggling is more in the low-speed corners and so we start looking at circuits that have got more medium and high-speed content; we think we will do better there.
“So, Silverstone will be a good example of that. Austria shouldn’t be too bad for us either. So let’s hope we go well on both of those.”
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