On the eve of this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes showed off their long-awaited upgrades for their troubled 2023 F1 car which includes new sidepods, front suspension and floor.
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The high mounted cooling and low sidepods give it an odd looking shape for an F1 car. Interesting how it and the Aston have the cooling louvers placed on the very top of the car.
W13 had the sidepod radiators placed quite forward, leaving them a very small amount of room for a complete sidepod redesign - on top of bouncing and correlation issues. Bottom SIS was also sticking out a lot.
W14 has its radiators placed quite more to the rear and seems to leave a lot of room to implement either RB or Ferrari or a completely different style of sidepods without the need for massive change to internals. Bottom SIS looks to be in the floor now.
I don't expect any issues with bouncing like last year, so maybe after they have their true pace reference a few races in, they might want to have the room to change their approach and have placed those radiators accordingly.
As things stand right now, even Ferrari could make a switch to RB sides and vice versa, Williams seems to have placed the radiators in the most extreme position...
I saw a tweet that the cockpit was moved by 20 cm. From these photos - I don't believe it IF the wheelbase is the same (some users stated so)
Kukułka zwyczajna, kukułka pospolita – nazwy ludowe: gżegżółka, zazula (Cuculus canorus) – gatunek średniego ptaka wędrownego z podrodziny kukułek (Cuculinae) w rodzinie kukułkowatych (Cuculidae). Jedyny w Europie Środkowej pasożyt lęgowy. Zamieszkuje strefę umiarkowaną.
Cockpit moved rearward a bit. Perspective distortion is heavy on tyres, but that much is clear. Front wing endplates are still aligned completely so cockpit was definitely moved back.