Mercedes reveal final plans for W14 before it’s sent into retirement
Mercedes secured P2 in the Constructors' standings, but also their first winless season since 2011.
Mercedes have revealed that the W14 will be having one last run before it is allowed into retirement, with one more Pirelli tyre test planned for their 2023 challenger.
Having taken part in post-season testing in Abu Dhabi, the W14 will have another day of testing at Magny-Cours in France to aid the tyre manufacturer’s development.
The circuit has not been seen on the F1 calendar since 2008, but the W14 will not be too fondly remembered in Mercedes quarters as it is the first car built in Brackley since 2011 to not deliver a victory for a whole season.
Mercedes describe ‘happiness and relief’ at securing Constructors’ Championship P2
Even though they did not take top honours in 2023, the W14 still propelled Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to eight podiums between them across the year.
And with a tight Constructors’ battle with Ferrari going down to the final race, Mercedes eventually narrowly came out on top against the Scuderia to be ‘best of the rest’ behind Red Bull for the 2023 season.
While that is not what the team were after at all, they revealed they are already full steam ahead on development for the W15 – though their 2023 car will have one final hurrah before it goes into the team’s heritage collection.
“Ultimately the aim of all of us here is to win championships and we weren’t able to deliver that this year,” the team’s head of race strategy, Rosie Wait said in Mercedes’ post-Abu Dhabi debrief.
“However, given the performance we had and the challenges we faced P2 is a really good result and so the mood this week is really one of happiness and relief of having delivered that P2.
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“Now we can move on to putting all of our energies into going one better next year.
“The W14 doesn’t get to enjoy its retirement quite yet. First, it’s got a post season test in Abu Dhabi, then it is heading to Magny-Cours for some Pirelli testing.
“After that it will join our heritage collection where it will be well looked after and ready to come out for demo runs in the future.
“In terms of the factory, there is no such thing as a winter break. In fact, away from the race team the winter period is actually often the busiest time.
“Many people in the factory have been focussing on next year’s car for months and now that the racing is over the focus can switch entirely to that and it’s all hands on deck to get the car ready ahead of pre-season testing and the first race next year.”
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