Toto Wolff has explained that Mercedes altered their Formula 1 car concept during the 2022 season - but the changes could not be seen from the outside. Mercedes entered 2022 having won the last eight consecutive Constructors' Championships, and were the only team in F1 history to maintain their winning run across regulations changes, doing so in 2017. However, the change to the ground-effect machinery for 2022 tripped the team up with a fundamental floor issue going undetected until well into the season. Outwardly, the team stuck with its 'zero sidepod' philosophy while the likes of Williams abandoned this for a design philosophy similar to Red Bull's. Despite this, Wolff has revealed that the Mercedes team changed car concept during the 2022 campaign.
Wolff on car concept change
Wolff has previously stated that the W14 of 2023 will have different "DNA" to its predecessor as Mercedes seek to regain the title lost to Red Bull in 2022. He hinted at a car which retained the 'zero sidepod' idea to challenge next season's RB19 from Milton Keynes. "I go in the wind tunnel, and I say: 'That thing looks exactly like this year's car'," he explained to media, including RacingNews365.com ,in Abu Dhabi. "But they say to me: 'It's very different underneath'. "It is about the airflow, the weight distribution, the aero map. "Our car fundamentally changed mid-year - we changed the concept but you couldn't see anything on the bodywork. "I think the narrow sidepod concept is like a red herring. "It's full of surprises the last time I saw it in the wind-tunnel, but they told me it is not the same."
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