A final upgrade on the W13 before moving on to the W14
The German team will bring a final improvement to their car in Austin. They will then focus on 2023.
Mercedes has had a tough season and is progressing from race to race. With four more Grand Prix to go, the German team is close to Ferrari in the constructors’ standings with a 67-point deficit. With the recent good results (except for Singapore), the team managed by Toto Wolff believes in its chances.
To maximize them, new parts will be introduced in Austin, the next appointment on the calendar. This will be our final aerodynamic development stage and hopefully give us more performance. But most importantly, at each stage, we learn more and more, which will be useful for us next year, explains Andrew Shovlin, engineering director.
« That [the update in Austin] is part of it. There are also some elements where we have reduced the weight of the components which, hopefully, will bring the car closer to the weight limit. However, it is very difficult for us to know where we will be. In Singapore, Lewis was terribly close to the pole, but in Suzuka, both cars had a big gap with the front. »
The German team believes in its chances on the Texan track because according to them, the car has a good pace, even though it struggles more in qualifying. The Mercedes will have to deal, like last year, with problems on the track due to the numerous bumps present. This penalized the team in the fight for the world title between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
