Mercedes still working on problems: 'That put us closer to the front'

The W13 caused Mercedes many headaches in the past Formula 1 season. Toto Wolff called it a diva, while Lewis Hamilton described the car as a real nightmare. Meanwhile, the team seems to have somewhat overcome the problem, but it took almost a full season to do so.

With the update package introduced by Mercedes in Austin, the team took the biggest step. From then on, Hamilton and George Russell had a more competitive car than before and this even manifested itself in the first win of the season. It was also the first career win for Russell, who managed to make it a one-two together with his teammate.

In the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, however, Mercedes had to concede again to Red Bull Racing and Ferrari, but the team seems to have dealt with most of the problems. Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin acknowledges that the team has stopped running into new problems, but cannot say that everything is now solved.

Mercedes W13 still not without issues

"By the time you’ve got to the end of the season, you’ve raced across a whole range of circuits, you should’ve pretty much understood all the issues," Shovlin told the Season Debrief from Mercedes. He adds that the team was still struggling with problems that made the W13 less competitive on some circuits, but team members were no longer surprised by new problems and were able to foresee them at some point.

In recent months, Mercedes has been working hard to ensure that the problems with the W13 are not inherited by the W14 for 2023. "We’ve made good progress there. Now you can see that in some of the later updates, particularly the update we brought to Austin just put us that bit closer to the front," Shovlin notes.