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Mercedes have brought a radical upgrade to their 2022 challenger in the Bahrain pre-season testing. The team ran a mostly bare-bones car in the Barcelona test two weeks ago and were expected to bring massive upgrades to Bahrain.
The heavily upgraded W13 features a radical sidepod design that makes the Red Bull’s RB18 look relatively tame. The new sidepods are almost non-existent and look more like vertical slits on either side of the cockpit
Meanwhile, to maximize cooling, the team have taken a similar but more extreme approach to Aston Martin and Ferrari, featuring dual cooling vanes on the engine cover as well as the rear of the sidepods.
Mercedes’ approach to the sidepods is somewhat similar to that of their customer team Williams, whose 2022 charger features a hole in the back of the sidepod. But, unlike the FW44, the W13 separates the sidepods from the mandatory safety structures.
Rather than incorporate the side impact strut (SIS) into the sidepod, as every other team has done, the W13 has two aggressive looking fins on either side of the cockpit. It has been done to meet regulatory safety requirements, without having to accommodate it into the sidepod structure.
Mercedes’ radical new sidepods may be illegal
Mercedes’ new radical sidepods could help the team implement their preferred narrow body aerodynamic philosophy to an even greater extent. But there's a high chance that the new upgrade could also be illegal.
The new radical design is one of the most extreme seen across the grid and manages to make the sidepods as narrow as possible while meeting regulatory requirements. While the team’s decision to separate the sidepods entirely from the side impact strut (SIS) may have helped it pass safety tests, it might still fall foul of the FIA
One of the reasons the German team might have held off from bringing the upgrade to the first test in Barcelona could simply be due to their relatively late development switch last year. But as pointed out by many prior to the Bahrain test, Mercedes may also have deliberately withheld the upgrade until Bahrain to prevent the new design from being banned ahead of the season-opener in Bahrain next week.
