More upgrades to come for Mercedes' W14 but ‘prime focus’ on 2024 F1 car
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Mercedes have introduced several large upgrade packages to their W14 challenger and made steady competitive gains, though they are still lagging behind runaway leaders Red Bull. How have McLaren turned their 2023 F1 season around?Video of How have McLaren turned their 2023 F1 season around?Mercedes lead Aston Martin by 51 points in the race to secure runner-up spot in the constructors’ standings behind Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton has closed to within a point of third-placed Fernando Alonso in the drivers’ championship. And Mercedes chief technical officer Mike Elliott has confirmed the team is planning to bring more updates during the second half of the campaign. “In terms of what we can expect from the second half of the season we need to keep pushing,” Elliott said. “We need to keep pushing because we want to learn more about this car so we can take that into the winter and into the development of next year’s car but also we want that fight for second in the championship so we will keep bringing some upgrades to the car, keep fighting for that second position.”
Mercedes view any learnings that can be gained with the W14 as crucial for the development of next year’s W15, given there are no major changes to the aerodynamic regulations for 2024.Despite the continued upgrade push, Elliott stressed that Mercedes’ “prime focus” is their 2024 challenger. “In terms of what we’re trying to learn, what we’re trying to achieve, I think we can get that learning on this year’s car,” he explained.Related Horner says he and Wolff are F1’s last ‘dinosaur’ team principals Marko names only two drivers he thinks would be ‘nearer’ to Verstappen”We’ve got to put the focus into the winter development, making sure we’ve understood all the lessons we can from this year’s car and then turn that into the right things for next year.”You have to sort of pick a direction and go in it, and as you learn, you can tweak that direction, move it slightly. And I’d like to think we’ve sort of got ourselves into the right place for the winter.”I think there’s still learning we can do, and there’s still P2 to fight for in the championship, so we’ll keep developing. But obviously, our prime focus now is next year’s car.”
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