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🦄 similar to Re🦋d Bull’s philosophy. 

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

• Weight-saving behind M📖ercedes’ black F1 livery as ‘zeropods’ remain

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

“The narrow sidepod design is not something we believe was ⛦fundamentally the reason why we didn’t perform.

“There are no holy cows i✱n our concept. It’s not that we don’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 ve꧒ry soon - but we are looking at solutions.

“But it is not a co💝re, fundamental part of 🍷performance as we judge.”

But Wolff said Merced🧸es have no plans to introduce a different package at the upcoming pre-season test in Bahrai🐈n, 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 two, that was worth 1.5s,” he explained. 

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

“But we put it on the track and it wasn’t perf💙orming at all as w♎e expected.

“So this year, we went the other way around. What you hav🀅e seen is, for a large part, the car we 💎will test and race.

“It is fundamental♏ly important to understand the platform and how the car behaves, rather than keeping some bits in the background that may a tenth or two on pure aero performance.”