Lewis Hamilton & Co. Take “Inspiration” From Rich Past To Get Rid of Their Achilles Heel

Mercedes’ 2023 challenger unveil has come as an absolute astonishment as the Silver Arrows have decided to go back to their unusual black livery for the upcoming season. Despite having the name Silver Arrow, the color is predominantly absent from the body of the W14. Citing the reason as weight saving procedure, this wasn’t the first time Lewis Hamilton and Co. has resorted to this method. Mercedes, the constructors with rich racing as well as automobile history, took “inspiration” from the early days of motorsport.

As per Motorsport, “the team has taken inspiration from the legendary creation of the original Silver Arrows.” This means that back in the day, the German giants used a similar method to shed enamel to part ways with the extra bit of weight.

Reportedly, Mercedes has also chosen to try the same trick back in January 1934 with their W25 in the presence of Adolf Hitler. After unveiling the cars [three W25s were unveiled] it was found that they were overweight by 1000 grams from the limited 750 kgs. This led the then-team principal Alfred Neubauer and driver Manfred von Brauchitsch to form the plan to strip off the lead-based paint and reduce weight.

When this was done and the car weighed back to the limit, they were subsequently named Silver Arrows, as per reports. Moreover, it also took notable inspiration from the Auto Union’s [Now Audi] 1934 Type A.

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The Brackley-based team also claims that their new challenger wears black paint, which connects with the 1993 Sauber C12. Although it wasn’t predominantly a Mercedes car and all black. Sauber and Mercedes Benz were in a partnership back then and hence the C12 sported the Mercedes Benz logo on it with black paint all over.

Toto Wolff explains the Mercedes black livery

Weeks before the sexiest W14 was launched, the social media of the Mercedes AMG F1 team revealed subtle hints about a potential black livery. While it wasn’t up for anyone to guess, the new W14 is indeed not silver, but super black with lots of exposed carbon on it.

Toto Wolff, the team principal, opened up about the reason why Brackley chose to go with this color instead of their heritage silver. Wolff told, “We were overweight last year. This year we have tried to figure out where we can squeeze out every single gram… You will see that the car has some raw carbon bits, along with some that are painted matte black.”

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Interestingly, this isn’t the first time Mercedes has had their car all black. The black livery was initially introduced in 2020 to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement and was subsequently followed in 2021. However, in 2022, they went back to their traditional silver until coming back to black again.