The intriguing Mercedes discrepancy keeping its F1 rivals guessing

Silver’s back, but it’s going for gold. Mercedes begins 2022 in a familiar position: defending a constructors’ title as Formula 1 makes the move into a new aerodynamic era.

Having run with a predominantly black livery for the past two seasons to underline its commitment to improving the level of diversity within the company, Mercedes returns to its silver roots. But it is no less committed to its Accelerate 25 cause, which has already begun to bear fruit and has resulted in an increase in underrepresented groups within STEM careers joining the team. Mercedes estimates that 38% of its new recruits over 2021 could be considered as such.

Mercedes also begins 2021 with a new driver pairing, as George Russell picks up his long-awaited chance with a full-time ride with the Brackley squad to partner Lewis Hamilton. As driver line-ups go, it’s one that’s keenly anticipated by everyone involved within F1.

What of the new car? Well, therein lies a little bit of confusion: the renders of the W13 and the physical car shown at launch aren’t the same. That’s not uncommon within launch season, with teams often attempting to wrong foot each other to hide their best-laid plans.

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But which is the real W13? At a guess, probably the one that took forever to be wheeled out at the physical launch. Grampa Simpson's famous "just eat the damn oranges" quip springs to mind.

Regardless, the front wing on both representations is not only interesting, but it’s a bit different to the other cars on the grid. Many of the 2022 cars seen so far have focused on loading up the inboard part of the wing, filling as much of the bounding box as possible – even at the attachment points to the nose.

Mercedes W13 detail

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

Mercedes has focused its downforce production at the front within the centre of each side of the front wing, sweeping the wing downwards towards the nose attachments. The renders feature a more boomerang-shaped array of elements on the front wing, while the car seen in Mercedes’ launch event shifts some of the wing camber further in-board. The endplates on the renders are more triangular compared to the physical car, and those renders also show a protrusion of the nose beyond the front wing – which the launch car did not have.

The transition of the endplates to the front wing is probably the squarest to be seen so far with the new breed of designs, with Mercedes perhaps looking to recapture some of the outwash effects lost to the change in regulations. This is also hinted at with the direction of the front wing flap adjuster, angled outwards to give oncoming airflow a little bit of encouragement to go around the front wheels.

Once again comparing renders to physical car, Mercedes has hidden its more aggressive opening to the underbody tunnels in its imagery, and the outside strake is considerably more vertical on the real-world model to reclaim any control over the onset of airflow from the front lost to the departure of the bargeboards. This leads into some very light rippling on the edge of the floor, not dissimilar to the design used on the W12, potentially an attempt to help provide the Venturi tunnels with more of a seal – or to generate more mid-corner downforce.

"Hopefully, you will also see that we have taken another step with how tightly packaged the sidepods and engine cover are. To get to this is not just a shrink-wrapping exercise but requires a huge amount of redesign and simulation to make it work" Mike Elliott

Mercedes’ sidepods have an interesting feature on the leading edge too, which isn’t visible on the renders; the front corners have been dimpled inwards with a flow conditioner placed on top. It’s similar to the shaping that Aston Martin launched its AMR22 with, in an attempt to control the airflow coming from the front wheel assembly and turn it outwards. Previously, that was a job for the mass of bargeboard parts that sat in that area, but these have been waylaid by the new rules – meaning that the teams have had to use their ingenuity to overcome their departure.

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The sidepods have offered further variation in design, probably aligning most closely with the McLaren MCL36 – which is no surprise, given their common powertrains. But again, the physical car shown on Mercedes’ stream is even more tightly packaged compared to those seen on the renders, with the rear almost tapering off into a tear-drop shape to open up the top of the floor. That should also yield the reintroduced beam wing with lots of clean air to work with, given the noticeable clearance between the rear wheels and the car’s tail.

“Getting to the desired aero shapes has meant a complete internal repackaging,” said Mercedes’ technical director Mike Elliott, “right down to the electrical layout and where we fit things like the ECU.

“The suspension has been redesigned to account for the loss of hydraulics and remote springs, now banned in the new regulations. Hopefully, you will also see that we have taken another step with how tightly packaged the sidepods and engine cover are. To get to this is not just a shrink-wrapping exercise but requires a huge amount of redesign and simulation to make it work.”

Mercedes W13 detail

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

It’s also interesting to see Mercedes’ take on the rear wing, which features two dips either side of the central mounting pillar, with the leading edge of the mainplane slightly raised in the centre. At such an early stage in the new ruleset, it’s hard to know definitively what specification of wings are being shown, especially given the renders show a slightly different variation – where the mainplane is straighter overall.

Given the retention of the powertrain formula, Mercedes appears to have largely kept the same inlet size within the rollhoop given intake and cooling will be in a similar ballpark to what last season’s internals required. Mercedes has introduced a few changes to its power unit ahead of the freeze point before the start of the season, and managing director of Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains division Hywel Thomas noted that his team had to work closely with the chassis team to reach an optimal layout.

“The project we took on for 2022 was large,” said Thomas, “and it is a very broad upgrade across the different elements, to get every last bit of performance, efficiency and reliability. There are also some FIA-imposed measurements, particularly in the ERS system, that we had to accommodate as well.

"The chassis team have been working very diligently and swiftly through the new regulations, so they can understand where the opportunities lie, and which areas are lap time sensitive. We make adjustments to the PU that allow the chassis team to best exploit the regulations. We might want to rearrange the installation slightly or change the PU layout to get more flexibility in those lap time sensitive areas.”

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"Over the course of the year, given the regulation changes, I think the development of the overall car package will be quite strong, so the way the PU works at the start of the season won't be the same come the final races of 2022. We must include that ability to be adaptable into the PU from the start of the season, because of the performance freeze.”

If Storm Eunice doesn’t put a pin in venturing outside, Mercedes has planned a shakedown at Silverstone to begin its first batch of troubleshooting ahead of the 2022 season. One thing that could be in the team’s favour is the change in inclination of the ‘22 cars, which have so far run without any rake to maximise the efficiency of the Venturi tunnel underbody. That’s a sea change from a year ago, when the floor changes rewarded cars with more rake but, given that everyone’s starting from scratch, it probably won’t give Mercedes too much of a leg up.

Regardless, Mercedes was one of two teams in a title fight, and most likely would have made some compromises to ensure it could last the distance in 2021. It also, thanks to its constructors’ title win, has the least available windtunnel time owing to the new aero testing regulations. Like last year, Mercedes is not going to have it all its own way – and if anything, it might take a little bit of pain in the early season with those drawbacks. But if there’s one team who knows how to turn a diva into a dancer, the Silver Arrows can.

Mercedes W13

Photo by: Mercedes AMG