Toto Wolff has committed Mercedes to changing the position of their Formula 1 cockpit on the 2024 car after unease from Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton complained over the Australian Grand Prix weekend that he was unhappy with the cockpit position in the W14, with Mercedes sitting their driver considerably ahead of those in the class-leading Red Bull RB19. The team are unable to change this during the 2023 season, with 2024's W15 the first chance to rectify the problem, and Wolff has stated that they will move the seating position back after Hamilton reported problems.
What did Hamilton say?
"When you're driving, you feel like you're sitting on the front wheels, which is one of the worst feelings when you're driving a car," Hamilton explained to media in Melbourne. "If you were driving your car back home and you pulled the wheels beneath your legs, you would not be happy when you're approaching the roundabout. "What that does is it changes the attitude of the car and how you perceive its movement, and it makes it harder to predict compared to when you're sitting back, more in the centre and it's just something I've really struggled with." In response to the seven-time World Champion, Wolff revealed in Azerbaijan that the shift would be happening for 2024, although he didn't think it was a "real issue." "We don't think it's a real issue from the engineering side, but just to take it out of the equation, we're going to change to position to optimise the car and make sure that the driver is sitting in a good place," he told media, including RacingNews365.com. "George [Russell] is pretty relaxed about the seating position, but for Lewis, it is important, so we are going to find a compromise."
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