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Toto Wolff says when he saw the W14 in the wind tunnel it looked “exactly like this year’s car”, but he was then assured that “it’s very different underneath”.
When Mercedes revealed its ‘zero sidepods’ car concept in the 2022 Bahrain pre-season test, everybody was stunned. However, the concept didn’t prove to be successful at first, as the team struggled with the car for most of the season.
There has since been a lot of talk that the concept could be scrapped for 2023, but team boss Toto Wolff says he was surprised when he saw the W14 and it looked exactly like the W13.
“I go in the wind tunnel, and I say: ‘That thing looks exactly like this year’s car’,” the Austrian said.
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“But they say to me: ‘It’s very different underneath’. It is about the airflow, the weight distribution, the aero map.
“Our car fundamentally changed mid-year – we changed the concept but you couldn’t see anything on the bodywork. I think the narrow sidepod concept is like a red herring.
“It’s full of surprises the last time I saw it in the wind-tunnel, but they told me it is not the same,” Wolff concluded.
