Mercedes became the penultimate F1 team to launch their 2023 challenger – taking the covers off the W14 where they sport an all-black livery.
A day after rivals, Ferrari presented their new challenger, Mercedes showcased the car in which they hope will move them back into regular race wins and title glory.
Mercedes’ latest creation marks a return to black – a colour they ran in the 2020 and 2021 seasons – after they returned to their more traditional silver scheme.
Team boss, Toto Wolff, continuing drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell as well as new reserve Mick Schumacher were all present at the launch at Silverstone.
One change inside the Mercedes camp for 2023, is the absence of James Vowles who recently left his strategy focused role to take the role of team boss at Williams.
Our hopes and expectations are always to be capable of fighting for a World Championship. However, our competitors were very strong last year, and we are playing catch-up. Racing at the front requires resilience, teamwork, and determination. We face up to every challenge, we put the team first, and we will leave no stone unturned in the chase for every millisecond. This year, we are going all in to get back in front. We were overweight last year. This year we have tried to figure out where we can squeeze out every single gram. So now, history repeats itself. You will see that the car has some raw carbon bits, along with some that are painted matte black. Of course, when we changed the livery in 2020 the main driving factor was to support the diversity and equality causes which are always close to our heart. The colour black became part of our DNA at that point, so we are pleased to return to it.
Toto Wolff speaking at the W14 launch.
Jordan's F1 Blog 