Following a challenging 2022 season in which the Mercedes W13 suffered from severe porpoising and was uncompetitive at the front of the field, team principal Toto Wolff declared the W14 would have "different DNA" from its predecessor. The car was designed with a higher ride height to reduce porpoising. Its livery returned to black — not, as with the 2020 and 2021 cars, to promote diversity, but to save weight by leaving some bodywork panels as unpainted raw carbon and painting others in matte black, addressing a weight deficit identified with the silver-liveried W13. The car was unveiled on 15 February 2023.
Despite the design intent, the W14 proved slower than expected at the outset. Key figures within the team questioned the effectiveness of the car's aerodynamic concept. A major upgrade package — most notably the reintroduction of conventional sidepods that had been removed from the W13 — was planned for the cancelled Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and instead debuted at the Monaco Grand Prix.
At the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Russell and Hamilton qualified sixth and seventh respectively. Hamilton finished fifth and Russell inherited his starting position. The car's first podium came in Australia, where Hamilton finished second after Russell retired with a powertrain issue on lap 18. Neither driver reached the podium at Azerbaijan or Miami.
The Monaco upgrade package delivered an immediate result: at the subsequent Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton finished second and Russell third after recovering from twelfth. Hamilton took a further podium in Canada. A frustrating Austrian weekend followed, with Hamilton penalised for exceeding track limits and both drivers finishing outside the top six.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton took the W14's first and only pole position of the season — his first since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He lost the lead to Verstappen immediately at the race start and finished fourth.
After the summer break, Mercedes suffered a strategic failure at the Dutch Grand Prix, remaining on slicks as rain fell; Russell finished seventeenth and Wolff described the call as "catastrophic." In Singapore, Russell crashed out of third place on the final lap while Mercedes contemplated what could have been its first victory of the season; Hamilton inherited third place.
In Qatar, Hamilton and Russell collided at the race start on the first lap. Hamilton accepted full responsibility. At the United States Grand Prix, Hamilton finished second but was disqualified post-race for a technical violation relating to the skid block of his car — the first time he had been excluded from a final classification since the 2009 Australian Grand Prix.
At São Paulo, Russell retired with an oil temperature problem and Wolff remarked that the W14 "doesn't deserve a win." The Las Vegas Grand Prix saw Russell collect a five-second penalty for a collision with Verstappen. Hamilton, meanwhile, had recovered from a collision with Oscar Piastri to finish seventh and mathematically secure third in the Drivers' Championship.
At the Abu Dhabi finale, Mercedes required a strong result to hold second in the Constructors' ahead of Ferrari by four points going in. Russell finished third and Hamilton ninth; a five-second penalty applied to Pérez in the closing laps proved decisive in keeping Ferrari's points haul insufficient. Mercedes secured second by three points.
The W14's failure to win a race during the season represented the end of a twelve-year sequence in which every Mercedes Formula One car had taken at least one victory. The experience shaped the team's development approach for 2024, particularly the mid-season lessons about aerodynamic direction and the limitations of the car's core concept.