"The mistake was the zero sidepod concept": Alex Albon takes a sly dig at the Mercedes' 2023 F1 challenger

Williams F1 driver Alex Albon did not shy away from taking a dig at the Mercedes's 2023 F1 challenger, W14. The German team had stuck to their 'zero sidepod' concept in the first few races of the 2023 season from the previous year.

Despite finishing in P3 in the Constructor's Championship, the former world champions were lacking in competitiveness against their rivals Red Bull and Ferrari for most of the 2022 season.

However, Mercedes decided to stick with the zero sidepod concept from 2022 into the first few races of 2023 as they were encouraged by the late 2022 surge in form.

Alex Albon, while playing the 'Spot the Mistake' in a new video released by F1.com on YouTube, claimed that the 'mistake' in the group image before the start of the 2023 season was the W14. He said:

"The mistake was running the zero sidepod concept." (11:40)

The dig came after Mercedes decided to abandon the zero sidepod concept in favor of the Red Bull-style downwash concept like most of the grid after Monaco 2023.

As per "Road and Track", Lewis Hamilton was also critical of the Brackley-based outfit's decision to stick with the 2022 concept and said to "BBC Radio 5":

"Last year, there were things I told them. I said the issues that are with the car. I've driven so many cars in my life. I know what a car needs. I know what a car doesn't need," Hamilton said.

"I think it's really about accountability... It's about owning up and saying, 'Yeah, you know what? We didn't listen to you. It's not where it needs to be and we've got to work," he added.

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McLaren team boss reflects on the failure of Mercedes's zero sidepod concept

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said that in the new ground effect cars introduced in 2022, the wide side-pods concept worked better than the zero sidepod concept of Mercedes.

Speaking with RacingNews365 in 2023, Stella said:

"I wouldn't simply say downwash, I would say wide sidepods is actually the primary concept that seems to interact very well with the floor. The sidepods, in simple terms, act a bit like miniskirts, so aerodynamically, having the wide sidepods helps the suction [of air] to the floor."

"That is the concept you can't do without if you want to maximize the suction of the floor and the load on the car. It's very clear that everyone is converging in that direction, and we are also moving development in that direction and hopefully, we will see results soon," he added.

Mercedes's decision to switch to wider sidepods have worked for the better as evidenced by their results in the 2024 season, where they won races in Austria, Silverstone, and Spa.