Hamilton paid the price for his tinkering too, recording the very first winless season of his F1 career, while Russell managed to break his duck with a fine drive to a maiden win at Interlagos, with Hamilton right behind once Mercedes had found some inroads into the W13’s flaws and the FIA altered the aero rules to limit the buffeting effects of the new ground-effect cars.
If 2022 didn’t go to plan, then Mercedes is undoubtedly playing catch-up this year. However, this is a team that’s effectively re-written grand prix racing history and torn up record books in recent years, so never count Mercedes out.
2023: The champion returns?
Team boss Toto Wolff summarised 2022 as “a total disaster”, and both he and his colleagues refuse to be drawn on the team’s title chances for this year ahead of the car’s launch this week.
“I think the interesting thing is how we move forward from here,” said technical director Mike Elliott in a season review with Wolff and powertrains chief Hywel Thomas. “I think we’ve got to maintain that scepticism and be honest with ourselves that we were behind at the end of the year. And while I think that we’ve made good progress through the year and I am really pleased with the culture I have seen and the attitude, we will only see the return on that next year.”
It will be interesting to see if Mercedes sticks with the ‘size zero’ sidepod design it pioneered last season, a model that the team is adamant showed well in the car’s aero data, but was also contributing to its aerodynamic porpoising issues.
Mercedes-AMG 2023 F1 driver line-up
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| Lewis Hamilton | George Russell |
- Hamilton holds a contract until the end of the 2023 season, with options to extend
- Russell is seen as Mercedes-AMG’s long-term project, and thought to be committed to a deal until the end of 2024
- Mick Schumacher will act as reserve driver for the 2023 season
Key personnel
Team Principal: Toto Wolff
Whether it’s first-banging and irate finger-pointing in the garage, or simply winding up Christian Horner with irreverent comments to pundits, Toto Wolff has become one of the most recognisable people in the grand prix paddock. But don’t let any of that fool you, he’s also one of the most determined to get Mercedes-AMG back on top of the pile. Repeat winning hasn’t diminished his appetite for it, and he’s clear in his message.
Wolff himself said about this forthcoming year: “For me the perspective or the planning is not about the short-term, it’s not about a race, even a season or two or five. It’s about I would like this team to constantly develop to be chasing for race victories and championships every single year but not taking it for granted, not having any sense of entitlement and if I hear us talking it almost sounds like the complete disaster of all seasons… it felt like it and I think this is the right feeling.
“But we finished third in the Constructors’ Championship, we were very close to Ferrari, we won a race, we had 10 plus podiums. Whatever happens at the beginning of 2023 it’s going to be another building block for the success of this team.”
Race engineer: Peter Bonnington
Not to be confused with the lead singer from U2, this Bono is far more effective on a race weekend, as he gears up for an 11th straight season as Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer. And it’s an important partnership, with Hamilton equalling Michael Schumacher’s record for the most seasons spent with any single F1 team this year, and he’s had Bono’s voice in his ear for all 200 of his Mercedes-AMG grand prix starts.
“I’m incredibly grateful for Bono. I’ve had an amazing journey with him, I think we’ve got one of the longest, if not the longest standing driver-engineer partnerships that there’s been, and he’s been hugely integral to my success,” Hamilton said.
“We’ve had an amazing journey together, we’ve supported each other on and off-track, through good and bad times, and I love working with Bono; he’s like a brother to me, a brother from another mother.”
That sort of bond could prove key to Hamilton’s revival after what must have been a hugely demotivating 2022 campaign, compounded by it coming right off the back of the events of Abu Dhabi 2021. How long will it be until we hear those familiar words “Get in there, Lewis!” crackle over the radio again?