The “perfect storm” that led Mercedes down the wrong F1 path in 2023

Mercedes’ crippling 2022 porpoising issues are well documented, the team unable to run the W13 as low as it wanted to extract its ultimate performance.

But over the second half of the season the Brackley team’s fortunes changed, and Lewis Hamilton and George Russell became more and more competitive.

Certainly, the pair had grabbed a fair share of podiums already, but they were often helped by reliability issues for one of the Ferrari.

But in Mexico, where Russell…