At the end of the year, Mercedes won’t be looking to completely “bin” their current W14 challenger, according to Lewis Hamilton. Toto Wolff, who will be having knee surgery this weekend, disagrees with the 38-year-old’s assessment.
Toto Wolff will not be present at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Mercedes has made a lot of progress recently after giving up on their failed “zeropod” concept, but they are still far behind Red Bull, who have been leading the field for almost the entire year.
Hamilton insists that his current vehicle is still a “masterpiece” and does not anticipate a complete turnaround for the Silver Arrows in 2024 despite this.
The British driver said in a press conference on Thursday at Suzuka, “We won’t ever bin this car, these cars are still masterpieces even if they aren’t the fastest in the world.
We’ll try to change some of it and preserve some of the good parts.
Considering the new course we are on, it is way too early to predict and be optimistic about the car for the following year, but I have complete faith in the crew.
“.
Mercedes won’t “bin” their car at the end of this year, according to Lewis Hamilton.
It comes after Wolff predicted last weekend that Mercedes would completely abandon their W14 concept as the season came to a close.
Despite the fact that the current vehicle is “really fast,” the 51-year-old was adamant that the W15, which will be released in the following year, will represent a significant advancement.
When it’s really quick, “we’ll throw this one in the trash and then start on a new journey,” said Wolff.
We have answers to our questions and, in my opinion, encouraging signs of a balanced, more cohesive car coming out of the tunnel, so we are viewing the results with optimism.
“.
The ‘bones’ of Mercedes’ current design philosophy, which has largely remained the same since the widespread technical regulation changes at the beginning of 2022, will be changed, Wolff further confirmed last weekend.
The head of Mercedes said to F1TV that the car that will be on the track in 2022 will be essentially the same.
In terms of how to make the car better, we seem to be going in circles a little bit.
“We are working to alter those bones for next year, so while we see a lot of potential, you are also starting in a situation where you can’t really predict the result. But this is the current mentality, plain and simple.
“.