The Silver Arrows Are Back For 2022; The Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E

Well, the time finally came earlier today when the team presented their new race car for the 2022 season, the Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance. The Mercedes-F1 Team was the last team to unveil the new race car, which has been designed in accordance with the all-new regulations for 2022. These radical changes usher a new era for the pinnacle of Motorsport.

Faced with the most significant shift in technical rules in a generation, the Brackley and Brixworth Mercedes AMG F1 factories were humming with activity in order to meet new challenges and improve performance in every imaginable way.

"Since we started working on the W13, I have seen an enthusiasm among our team members that I have never seen before because this technical regulation offers so many possibilities," said Toto Wolff, team principal and managing director of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.

The Dawn Of A New Era For F1

Mercedes AMG has been a dominant force in the turbo-hybrid era of Formula 1. The Anglo-German racing team has so far won the Constructors’ Championship an unprecedented eight times in a row. It was still conceivable to take advantage of the benefits on the driving side at the start of the V-6 Turbo Hybrid era in 2014. With relatively steady regulations, the advantage was always successfully maintained in the years that followed.

"We did quite well in the last major rule change at the start of the hybrid era, and we were also successful in the switch from narrow to wide cars in 2017," Toto Wolff

However, with the fully new aerodynamics standards, all racing teams are now beginning from scratch. As a whole, the FIA has carried out these changes in a bid to improve closer racing, which is honestly what F1 fans want. Learn more about how the 2022 regulations affect teams in the video below.

The Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E

Coming to the design, the W13 is the 13th car put together by the Mercedes-AMG factory team since its return to Formula One in 2010. The ’E Performance’ technology designation reflects the team’s ongoing strong work with Mercedes-AMG. All new AMG performance hybrid vehicles bear this badge.

"Towards the end of the year, when the car-building project really came together, I felt a deep passion throughout the company, not only in the technical area but all over our plants in Brackley and Brixworth, with everyone the attitude was: 'We can do this.'"

The carbon skin of the factory race car is not just limited to silver. Sponsors and race partners have done their bit to liven up the W13’s skin. Petronas has had the front and rear wings painted turquoise-green. To emphasize sponsor Ineos, there are splashes of wine-red paint on the airbox, the inside of the front wing end panels, and the rear of the rear wing. The AMG badge is also prominently displayed on the upper half of the nose.

The New Aero

In terms of new technologies, the initial representations do not tell everything. The nose, like the FerrariF1-75, protrudes fairly far down to well above all of the front wing sections. Generally, the leading edge of the wing is straight and the upper flaps are curled up outward. Now, this has never been seen on any other vehicle.

The side cooling intakes are rounded and tiny in size. The transition to the side box is similar to what we’ve already seen on the AMR 22, which also uses a Mercedes engine Meanwhile, the fairing behind it is considerably thinner than on the Aston Martin, indicating a much tighter arrangement of the powertrain components under the skin of the W13.

The W13 represents the culmination of 18 grueling months of hard labor. A staggering 98 percent of the racecar is brand new with only a few elements carried over from its predecessor. For the 2022 season, the cockpit of the W13 will be occupied by a new driver duo: young George Russel joins seven-time champion, Lewis Hamilton.

Russel Joins Hamilton For 2022

George Russell has a long history with the factory racing team, having started out as a Mercedes junior. As a result, Team Principal Toto Wolff does not consider the young talent to be a newcomer at all. We already saw what the young Briton can do when he completed in a Grand Prix for Mercedes as a replacement for Hamilton at the Sakhir GP in 2020 when Hamilton was down with Covid.

"While we have a good track record, my message is clear: we can't rest on past successes in terms of this year's performance, but we can rely on our people, our culture, our structure, and our mentality to do the best possible job for 2022."

The 2022 season will be Hamilton’s 16th in Formula One, with the record-breaking world champion returning to the cockpit for the first time since losing the World Championship to Verstappen in Abu Dhabi at Silverstone. Wolff is certain that his team’s guarantor of success has not lost any of his attributes as a result of this setback.

2022 Will See Closer Racing In F1

With the Mercedes presentation done and dusted, eight teams have now released a design, and seven have also released a car – virtual or actual. While the Mercedes team along with Lewis and Russel were out with the car at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on a damp day, we’ll get a better idea of what the W13 can really do in pre-season testing, due in two weeks in Barcelona.

While the car W13 is finally out, people online were quick to point our some differences between the car revealed on camera and the official press images.