
Mercedes made a surprise call to continue with its ‘zeropod’ sidepod design and overall car concept first conceived in 2022’s recalcitrant W13 at the start of F1’s new ground-effect era, with the team mistakenly believing it could be made into a Red Bull challenger following Russell’s win ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix.
But Mercedes swiftly moved to abandon that approach once the W14 was revealed to be badly off the pace in the 2023 Bahrain test and season opener.