Mercedes, according to various reports, have given their Technical Director, Mike Elliott, an ultimatum to sort out the W14 after the team’s disappointing start to the season in Bahrain.
Mercedes seem to have produced another lemon of a car for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to drive in the 2023 Formula 1 season as they kept the same concept of their woeful 2022 car the W13 with the new one.
As it was obvious for the whole world to see, Mercedes’ decision on their W14’s design philosophy turned out to be a very wrong one, as despite eradicating “porpoising” that plagued them last year with the W13, the new for 2023 Black Arrow is a painfully slow one.
Mercedes where 0.6s off the benchmark pace of Red Bull after qualifying in Bahrain, while in the race their deficit grew up to 1s per lap, both figures offering an ominous sign of the team’s 2023 prospects.
As a result, Russell qualified sixth fastest, while Hamilton was seventh, the race ending with Hamilton fifth while Russell was dropping to seventh.
The mood in Mercedes does not seem to be healthy at the moment, with Hamilton obviously not happy with the direction the team has taken, claiming they did not listen to his feedback and insisting the one responsible for that being held accountable.
Enter Technical Director, Mike Elliott, as a report in the Daily Mail, claims that an “emergency meeting” was held at Mercedes headquarters in Brackley where the problems have been discussed in depth, and as a result, Elliott was given an ultimatum to turn things around with the W14.
Elliott, who had previous stints at McLaren and Renault, replaced the team’s previous Technical Director James Allison, the latter promoted to become Chief Technical Officer back in 2021.
But now it seems that Allison will be returning to a more hands-on role according to Italian media, as it seems the team is putting their faith in the experienced hands of Allison who was holding the top job in the Mercedes technical department since 2017.