Lewis Hamilton Prepares For Championship Battle - "There's No Plan B" For W14

The seven-time champion discusses the upcoming 2023 season.

Mercedes has struggled so far in the ground-effect era of F1 with the W13 exhibiting porpoising for the majority of the season. Now, the Brackley squad has doubled down on their zero-pod design with questionable results from pre-season testing in Bahrain. Lewis Hamilton has commented on a potential "Plan B" for the W14 and if he feels in contention for the championship.

The British driver will be aiming to break a huge record this year as he looks to be the first driver to take home a race win after completing his 300th race in 2022, especially after the season being totally win-less for him. He'll be fighting Fernando Alonso for this title in his potent-looking Aston Martin AMR23. 

During an interview with Sky Sports F1 ahead of the season opening race, Hamilton explained:

"So there's people talking about a Plan B, there isn't a Plan B, complete rubbish.

"Ultimately, we are living in a time of the cost cap. To rebuild and redo a design of car, you have to go back to square one and we don't have time in a season to do that.

"So, we will continue to evolve and build this car and try to push it to the absolute limit. And I know I've got the best team behind me to to close the gap, but it's just finding that performance as fast as we can."

When asked if he feels the W14 is a championship winning car, Hamilton responded:

"We'll find out over the next couple of days what's realistic, but that's what I prepared for, for a championship battle but whether or not we have the equipment to fight for the championship, we'll find out. 

"I do believe I've got the team still that are championship worthy and it's just for us to keep our heads down.

"[Last year] all of us were just like panic mode, trying to figure out what was the issue and then try and fix it. It took us forever to really try and understand it this year.

"We're starting with a car that doesn't bounce but it is very, very similar to last year's car. But there are some positives there and I think it's a good foundation to work from"

While Mercedes' time in Bahrain raised a few questions in regards to their performance, Toto Wolff assures supporters that the W14 is a good base to work from over the rest of the season.

"We didn't have the smoothest winter test in Bahrain. We had some reliability problems and struggled with the car set-up on day two.

"But the key objective was to learn about the car, and we did lots of learning. We made good progress on the final day, which gave us directions to work on in the short period between the test and this weekend's race.

"It's always hard to have a clear picture of competitiveness at pre-season testing - and even more so with only three days of data available.

"Our expectations were that we would likely be playing catch-up to the front, based on how last year ended. That seems to be the case so far but we will only know for sure after this weekend.

"Nevertheless, we are confident we have got a car we can work with and are in a stronger position than 12 months ago."

Red Bull will obviously be the target for Hamilton after the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but with Aston Martin and Ferrari looking so strong so far, he may have some traffic to pass before he can think about podiums.