17 February 2023 , 19:13
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Mercedes' all-black livery could be here to stay for the long term, if Lewis Hamilton's comments on the look of the W14 are anything to go by.
Formula 1 fans were blown away by the look of the new Mercedes car when it was unveiled earlier this week. An all-black look had been used for two seasons as part of a project promoting diversity, but the team switched back to their more traditional silver base colour last year.
With Mercedes needing to save weight, though, the decision was taken to move back to a black canvas so they could use a lot of exposed carbon fibre. The end result is stunning – even if it does add to the problem of so many of this year's cars using dark colour schemes.
The problem of weight on this generation of F1 cars is unlikely to go away any time soon. Plus, Hamilton's comments about the livery give another indication that the all-black design may be recreated by Mercedes in the next few years.
"Pretty much everyone in the team, or in the garage at least, preferred the black car from before," said the seven-time world champion as he remarked on the change of colour scheme. "So everyone is with it, everyone likes it within the team."
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Explaining more about the weight issues which enforced the colour change, he added: "It is a key goal for us this year. "We were overweight all year last year and carried a weight penalty even into the last race so that has been a heavy focus to make sure it is not the case this year.
Lewis Hamilton is a big fan of the design (Getty Images)"We will find out next week whether we have hit that mark. Even last year we thought we were going to be on weight and we were way over so I am glad that has been taken seriously and that we see not too much paint on the car.
"That, for me, is positive because we are all out for performance and it is not necessarily how it looks but how quick it goes." Toto Wolff also talked about how his team had to "squeeze out every single gram" of weight from the car this year to optimise performance.
The Austrian said: "Of course, when we changed the livery in 2020, the main driving factor was to support the diversity and equality causes which are always close to our heart. The colour black became part of our DNA at that point, so we are pleased to return to it."