How Mercedes' new F1 upgrades fared - and what's next for the revitalised W14

Mercedes' persistence in continuing with its egregiously named "zero-pod" sidepods was admirable. Simulations and wind tunnel data suggested that the distinctly shrink-wrapped bodywork could offer gallons of performance, if it could simply be unshackled by the engineers. Unfortunately for the Mercedes designers, this was like trying to nail a jelly to the wall.

Last year's W13 chassis, the first attempt at a car with those sidepods, was plagued by issues that caused the drivers great discomfort in its willingness to bounce like a space hopper along the straights, and great uncertainty on the brakes. A season's worth of continued development transformed the car from a troubled teen into a race winner, but it could be argued that George Russell's visit to the top step in Brazil offered false hope.

PLUS: How a "baked in" F1 flaw consigned Mercedes to a year of recovery

When the W14 appeared to offer nothing more than stagnation, Mercedes had to decide whether to stick with its guns or ring the changes. Team principal and CEO Toto Wolff had frequently spoken of the team's need to recognise that there were "no holy cows" within its design concept, and thus the team felt enfranchised enough to look elsewhere - God's own bovine mammals notwithstanding.

It's no surprise that the anticipation that surrounded Mercedes' wide-ranging updates for the Monaco Grand Prix was palpable. Planned for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, as Imola's status as a more traditional racing circuit suggested that the data available was much more representative of the majority of other venues on the calendar, the floods in northern Italy ensured that plan was cancelled.

This meant the team was strong-armed into trialling them for the first time in Monaco, hardly the ideal environment for a large-scale upgrade package given its dissimilarity to every other circuit. But needs must, and it would have been much more difficult to kit the W14 out with its old clobber amid the tight timeframes to get cars wheeled out to the French Riviera.

The pre-event technical notes provided by Mercedes explained that the new design offered more overall downforce, with flow cleaned up towards the rear wing. To match, new floor edges were needed to direct flow around the new profile of the sidepods, particularly as pressure distributions and flow patterns were going to be very different indeed. After all, no aerodynamic part works in isolation, and the consequences of change must be correctly anticipated to allow every device on the car to work in unison.

The 'zeropod' Mercedes had its last outing in Miami, with the Brackley squad revising its aerodynamic concept for Monaco

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Discussing the previous design, trackside engineering manager Andrew Shovlin explained that although the initial design offered promises of progression, the team had to admit defeat at some point. When the concept was developed in 2022, it was done with no knowledge of how the other teams were set to go about their business, and that evaluating the other concepts that emerged over the past year had cleared away some of the fog of war.

"When you develop that, you're developing it blind as you haven't seen anyone's 2022 car," Shovlin reflected. "We saw an opportunity in the regulations that allowed us to do that, and we thought that would then create space to develop aerodynamically. But when we committed to it for 2022, you've got no idea whether someone's had a better idea or not.

"For us it was just that it was where we saw the most opportunity and we went down that route. Why have we now moved away from it? Fundamentally we've had a good go at that design. There were elements of it that were useful, but you can't fully understand the benefits of another concept unless you put it on the tunnel and you work and work on it for months.

"Changing concept is a fairly painful process, because you lose development time just to get back to where you were. It's good in a sense that we've sort of taken that pain now" Andrew Shovlin

"You never put these things on and you get the instant gain. It was just that sort of acceptance that we've had a good go at this concept. It isn't delivering the development rate that we're seeing from some of our competitors.

"And changing concept is a fairly painful process, because you lose development time just to get back to where you were. It's good in a sense that we've sort of taken that pain now, and the benefits of what we've done well, that's going to come more in the future. In the next weeks and months and carrying into the next car, that's where you would really expect to see that.

"It's interesting aerodynamically and suddenly our aerodynamic group are quite happy to be working on something different because it creates new opportunities and new learning. There's a lot of excitement there of what we can do going forward."

Bodywork revisions, although the most visible part of the car, were not the sole update that Mercedes brought to Monaco. The W14 also features a revised suspension arrangement, and the pick-up point of the upper wishbone at the chassis bulkhead has been raised. Although this will confer an aerodynamic benefit, and the pre-event update notes state that it "results in improved positioning of wishbone wake, which in turn improves onset flow into the sidepod improving cooling performance", there are other bonuses that it offers.

Revised front suspension is a key aspect of the new-look W14

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

For the 13 April issue of Autosport, this writer assessed why Red Bull's RB19 was so strong. It was concluded that, although the general aerodynamic design of the car had been part of that success, the platform created by the suspension allowed the underbody construction to thrive. A designer can create the most efficient bodywork ever seen but, if the vehicle dynamics are a disaster, then there will be no way to extract that performance from the car consistently.

Mercedes appears to have increased its attention to the overall suspension package as well, and although it may seem like a simple repositioning of the front wishbone, that placement changes the components of the compressive and tensile forces acting through the suspension members.

In other words, the revised position of the front upper wishbone leg can help the team more easily achieve a more stable platform for the floor. The positioning and inclination of the wishbones can offer, if correctly laid out and depending on the centre of gravity, anti-dive qualities that can ensure the underbody aerodynamics work consistently. As we concluded in our cover feature on Red Bull, this is something that can be worked out relatively easily if you know the car's centre of gravity.

"It is a case of trying to play with those geometries on the aero platform to try and get a bit more stability in the car," Shovlin explained. "It's probably given us more freedom because the issue that we always had prior to that was getting good front end when you needed it at the apex, good entry, stability when you're hard on the brakes and turning in. And that compromise was always something that we couldn't resolve. Hopefully that's moved us in the right direction."

Again, Monaco is hardly the best bellwether of how the updates have worked on the W14, although Lewis Hamilton's comments throughout the weekend were flecked with praise for the team's willingness to make the changes. Suggestions were that the updates had immediately created some improvements to the front end of the car and given the drivers more braking stability, which is positive given that it still remains relatively untuned.

Thankfully for the team, one of F1's favoured testing hotspots is next on the calendar. The Barcelona circuit layout has been switched back to its 'classic' arrangement now that the horrendous low-speed chicane at the back of the circuit has been circumvented, but the rest of the track is very familiar to every team on the grid.

Mercedes will hence head into the weekend knowing how the car should behave around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and will offer much more of a read of how the upgrades have affected the car off the bat. Practice will offer further opportunities for the race team to tune that, and explore set-up options to optimise the ride and the aerodynamic platform.

Extensive running in Barcelona in recent years will give Mercedes a better understanding of whether the new updates will bring it closer to challenging Red Bull

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

"I feel like the car has progressed, it's moved forwards," Hamilton reckoned. "I think next week we'll get a much better feel for it in a place where we can really push through all the medium- and high-speed corners but I think overall it's been a positive for us."

That's not to say that the problems are solved, and there remains the question of rear-end instability that must be cured. After all, it's an unpleasant situation for the drivers to not know how the rear is going to behave in any given circumstances - something that racing drivers and IBS sufferers alike can empathise with.

Wolff is confident that this is something that the team can overcome and, now armed with a clear direction to develop in after a year and a half of fighting fires, the team can get to work on trying to iron that out. Crucially, the word from many of those in the team is that the updates haven't stacked on any extra problems to solve, and this reduces the workload somewhat.

After its time in the wilderness, it's refreshing to see Mercedes once again confident in its development

"I think the worst would have been nasty surprises and there aren't any," the Austrian reckoned. "The car felt together which is important.

"Still a bit nasty on the rear, so that's something which we need to dial out of the car for the next few races but we have a new baseline and that's important to say okay, this is what we have now we've taken questions off the table where we weren't sure of, be it the front suspension or the extravaganza of our bodywork so, let's work from here. We're good at grinding away and the work that was done in the factories to bring that update here to Monaco from our team, it was really a big effort."

Getting those upgrades to sing in Barcelona will be crucial for the next steps, particularly as Shovlin pointed out that "the problem is, at this stage of the year, you have Aston Martin bringing an update, Alpine have brought more updates - everyone's bringing bits to the car". There's no time in F1 to bring a new package and indulge in any laurel-resting complacency; the engineers must be forever vigilant of what comes next.

After its time in the wilderness, it's refreshing to see Mercedes once again confident in its development. It might be too soon to predict that the team might be challenging Red Bull on a consistent basis once again, particularly given the colossal advantage that the Milton Keynes squad has in reserve. Nonetheless, it has now plotted a course to save it from sailing wildly in choppy aqua - the next challenge is to follow it, and hope no icebergs appear in its path to recovery.

Wolff is confident that Mercedes is now headed in the right direction having not encountered any "nasty surprises" in Monaco

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images