© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff reveals what Lewis Hamilton told him about the W14, after the team introduced a significant floor upgrade.
At the United States Grand Prix, Mercedes has introduced a new floor for their 2023 car, and now after two races, Toto Wolff reveals Lewis Hamilton’s thoughts on the upgraded car.
“I think we have seen that it is providing more downforce, more drivability, the car is a little bit less tricky,” the Austrian said.
“Still, the genes are there. Lewis said to me yesterday: ‘She’s still so difficult to drive, although she’s faster.’
“So I think for us, it was important to see whether, directionally, we were going in the right direction also for next year, and it seems to be on the right path.
“Because you must not forget the car that we’ve designed didn’t have that air flow, these sidepods, leading edges, then all the Christmas decorations we have designed for what we have now.
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“So hopefully that can be a step next year.”
Despite an obvious performance improvement, Wolff says it’s hard to predict if Mercedes can beat Red Bull at the next race in Sao Paulo.
“The longer you have the upgrade on the car and you correlate data, the better you’re going to be able to tune it.
“Now I don’t want to set the expectations too high with Brazil because last year, it came a little bit as a surprise that we dominated that weekend.
“So I think we have to go there knowing we have a good car and if we put all the ducks in a row then I think we can have a very strong weekend.
“Whether it’s good enough to beat Max [Verstappen]…Their package, driver, car, power unit is just very, very complete at the moment,” Wolff concluded.
