© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
After Mercedes launched its 2023 car, rumours started swirling around that the W14 allegedly did not produce results that the team hoped for in the wind tunnel.
After Mercedes’ 2023 car launch, Motorsport.com asked George Russell to comment on the fact that rumoured W14 sub-par wind tunnel results, along with Toto Wolff‘s statement that the team’s ‘zero sidepods’ could ‘develop’ throughout the season, could point to issues with the team’s launch spec car.
“I think we’ve seen it in a number of seasons now at Mercedes, just how well the team develops a car throughout a season,” Russell said.
“I think, fortunately with how the calendar has panned out, it gives the teams chances to develop without a huge number of races in a certain time span.
“There are definitely improvements that we are sure are going to make the car faster. The car is going to be lighter than what we saw last year. That is definite lap time. We know that.
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“We’ve worked really well and hard on reducing the drag because we saw how much we were losing to Red Bull, particularly last year.
“We believe we’ve achieved that, so we should be faster in a straight line as well. These are things that we know are guaranteed performance.
“But as soon as you brake for a corner, or go through the corner, the downforce needs to start working. We still truly don’t know how it’s going to perform.
“Ultimately, we don’t know how it’s going to tally up, mainly to Red Bull and Ferrari,” the Briton concluded.
We’d like to point out that there are as of right now no indications that the rumours about W14’s wind tunnel issues are true.
