Mercedes to forge ahead with upgrades for the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix

With Formula 1 deciding to cancel this week’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, a number of teams now face a decision regarding planned upgrades to their cars. Teams such as McLaren, Aston Martin, Ferrari, and others were planning on bringing upgrades to the track at Imola.

However, with the cancellation of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, teams now face the decision regarding bringing those same upgrades to the twisting circuit at next week’s Monaco Grand Prix. According to reports, Ferrari has decided to forgo a planned upgrade to the suspension on the SF-23 until the Spanish Grand Prix, believing that the streets of Monaco were not the best environment for radical changes.

Mercedes, however, is making a different decision.

According to this report from RaceFans, Mercedes has confirmed that they will bring upgrades to Monaco. Changes have already been made to the W14, and Mercedes will introduce those upgrades at next week’s Monaco Grand Prix.

Andrew Shovlin, the team’s Trackside Engineering Director, previewed the upgrades in the team’s debrief following the Miami Grand Prix.

“We are hoping to bring other updates later in the year,” Shovlin said in the Mercedes post-race debrief. “We do hope it is quicker, we hope it is better in terms of qualifying and race pace. We are looking to head off in a different development direction, one that we think gives us a better chance in the long term of being able to challenge for race wins and world championships.”

Shovlin also outlined that the upgrades will take the W14 in a much different direction, as the team realised as far back as the start of the season that their challenger for the 2023 campaign would not put them in position to push for a championship.

“Well, if we go all the way back to the Bahrain test, Bahrain race, that was when we realised that we didn’t have a package that was going to allow us to fight for a world championship,” said Shovlin. “And we continued on that same development direction, we wouldn’t end up in a position where we felt we could challenge Red Bull.”

That is when the team realized that a new direction was needed.

“So, it was around that time that we took some decisions on how we develop the car – how the car works aerodynamically, how we shape the characteristics of the car, how it is in terms of handling,” added Shovlin.

Following the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton expressed frustration that the team did not listen to him when developing the W14.

“Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car,” explained Hamilton. “Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs. I know what a car doesn’t need.”

“We’ve got to look into the balance through the corners, look at all the weak points and just huddle up as a team, that’s what we do,” Hamilton continued. “We’re still multi World Champions you know, it’s just that they haven’t got it right this time, they didn’t get it right last year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right moving forwards.”

As for what it takes to bring upgrades to the track, Mercedes walked fans through the “seven stages of developing an F1 car” in a lengthy video featuring a number of team members explaining what it takes, from evaluation to development.

As for what the upgrades might be, one aspect Silver Arrows fans are waiting to see is an adjustment to the sidepods on the W14. Ever since Mercedes rolled out their W13 — with its “zero sidepod” configuration — it has been expected that the team would adjust that setup. Back in Bahrain Mike Elliott, who was at the time the team’s Technical Director, indicated that a new sidepod setup would be coming in the future. “It won’t be the same as other people’s and it won’t be the same as we’ve got, it’ll be different,” Elliott confirmed back in Bahrain. “We have got a very different sidepod coming – I say very different, a different sidepod that’s coming.”

Yet, the sidepods will not be the only changes. Speaking ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, Team Principal Toto Wolff shared that Mercedes would be bringing more to the table. “What we are doing is we’re introducing a new bodywork and we’re introducing a new floor and we’re doing a new front suspension,” he said.

“That’s a pretty large operation, a large surgery and so there is going to be a lot of learning.”

However, as Wolff indicated weeks ago, there are no “silver bullets” in F1. Shovlin reiterated as much in the post-Miami debrief.

“What we are going to be bringing to the track in Imola is the first step of that work. This takes quite a long time to develop in the wind tunnel, you can’t just do these things overnight,” stated Shovlin.

Now fans will have to wait to see those upgrades one more week.