The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team is going ‘back to black’ in 2023, revealing a striking, black-based racing colour scheme for the forthcoming Formula 1® season. The W14 E PERFORMANCE represents a significant shift from predominantly silver designs that have been a feature of most seasons of the modern F1 era, including the most recent 2022 season.

Silver is inextricably linked to Mercedes-Benz racing teams. The colour is a loving homage to the ‘Silver Arrows’ cars that dominated grand prix racing.

However, in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the team chose to run a black-based livery as a direct expression of its support for the causes of diversity and equality. This year, the decision to reinstate a black livery was driven by practical considerations, rather than ideological or cosmetic.

History repeats itself

The circumstances that led to the return of the iconic black livery almost represent a case of history repeating itself. In fact, they are strikingly reminiscent of the sequence of events that brought about the original Silver Arrows livery in 1934.

As the 1934 season got under way, the Mercedes W25 race car was painted white. When it was presented to scrutineers, they found the car weighed one kilogram more than the 750 kg maximum limit. Quick-thinking team manager Alfred Neubauer ordered the white paint to be ground off, leaving a purely aluminium body that sparkled in silver and met the prescribed weight.

The next day, Manfred von Brauchitsch won the race and told the press, “to drive a Silver Arrow is an honour”. It was the first of many victories for the striking Silver Arrows cars of Mercedes, including 1954 and 1955 when Juan Manuel Fangio memorably won back-to-back world championships.

In 2023, saving weight once again plays a pivotal role in the choice of colour. The Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E PERFORMANCE that will be driven by Lewis Hamilton and George Russell has been designed to reduce overall weight and give the drivers a more consistent car balance across the speed range. A key element to this design is the liberal use of weight-saving black carbon-fibre material.

Building on past learnings

The 2022 season was a challenging one for the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 team as it struggled to unlock the performance of the W14 model’s predecessor, the W13. Constant development throughout the season to improve the car’s downforce resulted in a memorable one-two finish at the São Paulo Grand Prix.

“We were overweight last year. This year we have tried to figure out where we can squeeze out every single gram. So now, history repeats. You will see that the car has some raw carbon bits, along with some that are painted matte black,” he said at the launch of the W14 racing car,” explains Team Principal & CEO, Toto Wolff.

The signs for 2023 are encouraging, says technical director Mike Elliott. “Last year, once we had figured out what we needed to do, it took a huge amount of work to get ourselves moving forward,” he said.

“Towards the end of the season, you could see the performance improving, and the winter has been a reset. We have now done all the things that we wanted to do with the W13 last year, but weren’t able to because of resource constraints or because our focus was elsewhere fixing other issues.

“We had the famous ‘bouncing’ at some circuits and the car never gave the drivers good feedback, which limited them in being able to really push. With W14, we have tried to keep all the goodness of the W13, and address its weaknesses.

The bold new livery also gets the stamp of approval from the most important component of all – the drivers. “Aesthetically it looks great! It’s bold, aggressive and stands out,” Russell said.

Hamilton added: “I love the new livery. It says, ‘we mean business!’. To see the evolution of the car and the changes that have been made is fascinating. We’ve redesigned, optimised, and innovated so many parts of the car, and that is impressive.”

By Steve Colquhoun