Why is Mercedes the biggest surprise of the 2023 F1 season? F1 pundit explains

Formula 1 pundit Mark Hughes has been surprised to see Mercedes fail in the 2023 F1 season despite several changes made to the car and several FIA-imposed rules that could have helped the team.

The Brackley-based team continues to suffer this season as they are unable to squeeze enough pace out of the W14.

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Hughes dove deep into where Mercedes W14 has issues. He spoke about porpoising and how it was an issue with the car in 2022, which was solved by increasing the ride height. However, it revealed yet another aerodynamic issue that is causing trouble for the Silver Arrows.

He said:

"It's the Mercedes being so inherently wrong. Because the last part of the [2022] season, Austin, Mexico, Brazil, it looked like that concept was finally coming good. And this year, without the mechanical limitation of the rear suspension that could not be run at the ride height it needed to stop the bouncing, it seemed only logical that they should be somewhere near the pace."

Comparing how well Red Bull's sidepod concept has worked over Mercedes', he added:

"We can see now, that the elimination of the bouncing merely revealed a low ceiling of that aerodynamic concept...It sort of works, but it is not robust enough at all speeds and angles to work as the Red Bull's hyper undercut sidepods idea, which allowed Red Bull to make more forgiving underfloor and one which gives great downforce through the speed range."

Finally, Hughes also mentioned how Lewis Hamilton has complained about the cockpit being too forward and how he does not feel comfortable driving the car while sitting so close to the front tires.

The F1 pundit concluded:

"As a side issue, Lewis Hamilton saying the forward cockpit which is part of that aero philosophy does not give him a good feeling in the car for the way he needs to drive."

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Mercedes team boss on misleading path taken by the team for the 2023 F1 season

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff spoke about how his team put all its eggs in one basket after seeing glimpses of performances from the W13 in the 2022 F1 season.

Wolff explained how the team went ahead with the concept after they won the Brazilian GP and were aware of their limitations in Abu Dhabi. However, this faith in the concept backfired for them when they entered 2023. In an interview with Motorsport.com, he said:

"It got better and better and better. We were competitive in the American races. We won in Interlagos, we knew that Abu Dhabi [where Mercedes struggled] is a bit different. That was the perfect storm for us. It wasn't good for 2023. We thought we were on the right track and the concept works. But it didn't."

As of now, the team is trying to tweak the concept and bring major changes to the W14 to improve their performance and catch up to the top teams on the grid.