Mercedes have retained the unique slim sidepod solution they first pioneered in 2022 on the launch version of their new W14, while most of their rivals have favoured a design simila💃r to Red Bull’s philosophy.&n⛎bsp;

While team principal Wolff stressed t𒊎he ‘zeropod’ approach was not the fundamental reason for Mercedes’ lack of performance last season, he indicated the concept will undergo changes. 

• Weight-savin♉g behind Mercedes’ black F1 livery as ‘zeropods’ remain

“It is important to be bolඣd in this sport and I am proud of the soluti𓃲ons we put on the car last year,” Wolff said. 

“The narrow sidepod design is not so♊mething we believe was fundamentally🌠 the reason why we didn’t perform.

“There are no holy cows in our concept. It’ꦗs not that we do🐽n’t want to follow anybody’s ideas. 

“We stayed with the narrow sidepod as it, but you could see some developments from🗹 now 💛on which could be coming with upgrades and the sidepods will change - not very soon - but we are looking at solutions.

“But it is not a 𝓡core, fundamental part of ▨performance as we judge.”

But Wolff said Mercedes have n꧃o plans to introduce a different package at the upcoming pre-season test in Bahraꦇin, insisting the launch-spec W14 is “the car we will test and race”. 

“Last year we learned a tough lesson because we knew that we would bring an upgrade package for test number tw🔜o, that was worth 1.5s,” he explained. 

“You then look at the first test and think it’s not really relevant becau𝔉se it’s not going to be the real car.

“But we put it on the track and it wasn’t performiꦫng at all as we expected.

“So this year, we 🙈went the other way around. What you have seen is, for a large part, 𝓀the car we will test and race.

“It is fundamentally importaꩵnt to understand the platform and how the car behaves, rather than keeping some bit🌠s in the background that may a tenth or two on pure aero performance.”