Mercedes perform self-burn as they roast W14 performance in viral clip

If you can’t laugh at yourself, then how can you laugh at anyone else? And Mercedes have done exactly that with one of the best social media posts you will see all year.

Mercedes, the once mighty force of Formula 1, have been knocked off their perch by Red Bull in recent years with a different development path resulting in some rather lacklustre cars by the Silver Arrows’ incredibly high standards.

A Mercedes TikTok has gone viral after they openly mocked their own cars in what turned into a W11 appreciation post, a lean, mean winning machine that secured 13 victories (11 for Lewis Hamilton) and 15 pole positions in a dominant 2020 campaign.

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The post begins with some very out-of-tune- children singing Bonnie Tyler’s power ballad banger ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’. The first child represented the W12, the second the W13 and the third the current W14 challenger.

The tone-deaf screeches are interspersed with James Allison and Toto Wolff being tagged as the teachers that just want the pain to end.

That’s until the child representing the incredible W11 comes to life with pitch-perfect notes. Bliss.

The original TikTok post has been ‘hearted’ over 300,000 times and received widespread praise across multiple social media platforms…and widespread sorrow that we longer see the W11 in racing action.

Mercedes Tiktok hesabının paylaşımı 😂 pic.twitter.com/ySroe4kWgv

— Mercedes-AMG F1 TR 🇹🇷 (@mercedesiovmek) October 25, 2023

Hope for Mercedes?

While the W14 has ultimately failed to deliver any more silverware to Mercedes’ bulging trophy cabinet, there is some hope that it is now providing the team with a good foundation for its successor, the W15, to be in with a much better chance of fighting for race wins and perhaps even titles next season.

Even though the United States Grand Prix ended on a really sour note with Lewis Hamilton disqualified from a P2 finish for excessive plank wear, a new floor upgrade has given Mercedes renewed hope that they are on the right path to restore their former glories.

“The weekend was a very cast-iron vote of confidence in favour of what we put on the car,” Mercedes technical director James Allison said.

“That gives us great hope for the races that remain. But, the disqualification had everything to do with the setup and the bumpiness of the track, amplified by the fact that it was a sprint weekend.

“Of course, the disqualification is a significant blow.

“It’s a miserable feeling. It hurts and everybody here feels it. Everybody is upset, and embarrassed to a degree as well because we absolutely don’t like being on the wrong side of the rules and just lamenting the lost points.

“Give it a day or two and that will start to wane and be replaced by the much happier feeling, which is we moved our car forward this weekend and that’s hard to do. But we did it and we did it by a decent amount.

“And with four races left in the championship, four races where I am sure we will stay on the right side of the skid block rules, the initial feeling of hurt, disappointment, and frustration will pass to be replaced by the sunny optimism of knowing that the car looked bright on this upgrade package and we’ve got four more races to show what we can do with it.”

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