F1 News: Mercedes Director - W14's Sidepods Not the "Definitive Factor" For Performance Struggles

James Allison has listed the exact reason for the car's underperformance in the ground effect era.

Mercedes technical director James Allison clarified that the W14 F1 car's distinguishing sidepod design, with many calling it the Zeropod concept, was not solely responsible for its underperformance. 

When the ground effect era began in 2022, Mercedes adopted an entirely different route with the hope that the new design would help the team win more championships. However, it got several aspects wrong, which caused it to win just one race in the same year. 

The team faced several challenges on the W13 car, like porpoising, which caused drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to struggle with the car's handling. While Mercedes solved some of the problems in 2023, it also accepted that the path chosen was the wrong one. 

In 2023, the Brackley-based outfit improvised the W14 car to a certain extent but failed to win a Grand Prix for the first time since 2011. It was also Hamilton's second consecutive winless season. For 2024, the team has ditched its 'concept' for a more conventional approach to the W15 car with the hope that it can compete with Red Bull's title contender and win races. 

When Allison was asked if the team regretted following the unique path, he told Sky F1:

“Well, I don’t quite see the world the same way you guys do, looking at a sidepod and deciding that’s a concept. 

“We definitely took a path with our car and I would say that’s from the tip of the nose to the very back of the tail which was not a competitive one.

“The most visually noticeable aspect were our sidepods of course.

“But by no means the definitive factor.

“It was not right from front to back and that’s the thing we’ve had to learn and have to deal with.

“That’s taken us longer than we would have liked but the sidepods are maybe emblematic of a team that took too long to figure out which way was up but by no means the distinguishing feature that sealed our fate.”