The team, queen of the turbo-hybrid era, has unveiled to the world the car designed to hunt for the ninth consecutive constructors ‘championship, as well as revenge after the defeat in the last drivers’ championship in the Abu Dhabi epilogue. The W13 marks the return of the silver livery on the single-seaters of the Star, but the chromatic aspect will be irrelevant in the challenges on the track. Definitely of greater interest is the approach of the Brackley team to the new regulations, appreciable as Mercedes has unveiled the actual 2022 single-seater that will be in action in the next championship, contrary to the rivals of Red Bull who have preferred to keep the mystery by presenting to the world the standard model of the FIA. Among the cars presented so far, the W13 stands as the car that is least detached from the latest generation of single-seaters, proposing various technical concepts valid in past regulatory cycles which contributed to the success of the Silver Arrows. Mercedes is therefore the opposite of the unconventional Ferrari, seeking where possible a philosophical continuity even in the current revolutionary context, an approach that could equally prove to be successful.
Traditionally, to understand the aerodynamic philosophy of a single-seater it is advisable to start from the front, as the front wing determines the entire structure of the flows that hit the car body. However, the 2022 Formula 1 cars differ more in the bodywork in the central part, the area where the greatest freedoms granted by the regulation are concentrated, while the front and rear wings have less marked differences. The lines of the sides of the W13 strongly recall the shapes that have distinguished the latest Mercedes. The entire internal components, including power unit and cooling system, have been designed and installed with the aim of reducing the overall dimensions to a minimum.
The profiles of the sidepods with fairing of the bellies do not have the lower channel as seen on the Aston Martin, nor the dimensions and atypical excavations of the Ferrari F1-75, just as the descending “slide” trend proposed by AlphaTauri is absent. The Mercedes 2022 has a slight downward curvature in the upper part of the sidepods, but otherwise the body shapes are aimed at ensuring an extremely compact car body. Contrary to Ferrari which prefers the flows in the upper part of the sides, the Freccia d’Argento offers ample space for air circulation at the bottomchanneling the flows more in the lower part of the rear to the advantage of the effectiveness of the diffuser and the load generated by the underbody.
Another feature of the Mercedes is the setback of the side air intakes compared to the competition, a trait accentuated in the renderings published by the Brackley team, which differ from the single-seater present in the studio in several respects. The perspective of the available images of the real car distorts the proportions slightly, but one still gets the impression that the radiator outlets are slightly set back from the central pillar of the Halo. On the opposing single-seaters, on the other hand, the two elements tend to coincide longitudinally and in some cases the attachment of the air intake is even more advanced than the support of the Halo. Mercedes therefore seems to have preferred to move back the radiator outlets, distancing itself from the front wheels to get away from the turbulence they generate. The air intakes also offer the squared outline already seen on other cars.
Moving on to the front, like Ferrari the muzzle hooks onto the main profile of the wing and not on the second element, a solution adopted by a large part of the competition. The lengthening of the nose is a decision resulting from the compromise between the structural resistance required for the passage of the crash-tests and the dimensions necessary to guarantee the necessary strength, with a close link with the influence on external aerodynamics. The wing seen during the launch is heavily loaded in the middle of each portion, with the front view and the studio lights offering the opportunity to better appreciate the flow of the 2022 cars. Venturi channels tend to converge towards the center of the car, collecting the air conveyed by the decline of the front wing profiles on the inside.
Of great importance for the impact on aerodynamics at the front is the front suspension. Mercedes re-proposes the push-rod scheme dominant in the last technical cycle and so far re-proposed by all the other teams, with the exception of McLaren. The steering arm is not visible from the front, but some snapshots suggest that it is aligned with the upper triangle just behind the foremost element. Precisely the orientation of the two triangles differs from the other single-seaters, as there is no marked parallelism between the two elements, seen instead on the Ferrari F1-75. The two triangles tend to converge on the body side, but unlike Williams and Aston Martin, where the upper element is tilted downwards, on the W13 it is the lower arm that has an ascending trend from the wheel assembly to the frame. Therefore, also in this aspect, it is possible to appreciate a fair differentiation between the teams in terms of compromise between suspension kinematics and influence on external aerodynamics.
The rear suspension retains the pull-rod scheme of the last few seasons. As already seen on other 2022 single-seaters, the tie rod is completely exposed to the external flow, indicating a retraction of the lower triangle. The rear shot highlights a particularly high beam-wing with two elements, but above all it highlights how the rear arms of the upper triangles both extend up to the wing support, outlining almost a single profile. The rear wing differs strongly from the shapes of the FIA model, with a double groove to delimit the central rise, a geometry that recalls the spoon wings of the previous generation. The wing is also supported by a single pylon, a typical feature of the Mercedes 2020 and above all 2021.
Finally, the single-seater in the studio did not hide the first detailed works in the Venturi channels. The inlet section is externally surrounded by a flow conveyor, while the outer edge of the bottom reproduces the waves experienced on last season’s W12. In the vicinity of the rear axle, it can also be observed that the ramp of the diffuser is preceded by an additional rise, which initiates the expansion of the flow towards the underbody outlet.
However, the W13 also features important innovations under the bodywork. The power unit has been updated to counteract the reliability problems that emerged in 2021 and obviously to optimize combustion according to the new fuels with 10% ethanol. The turbocharger has also been revised, keeping the voluminous plenums of the previous power unit, which shine more through the body of the Aston Martin than the Mercedes itself. The biggest challenge, however, concerned the new aerodynamics, as explained by technical director Mike Elliott: “In reality, the main change concerned the aerodynamic regulation. It was about understanding what this meant for us, what changed in the flow structure, how we could recover from this and create the best possible car ”. Elliott’s words tell of an approach in contrast to the one carried out in Maranello and illustrated by Mattia Binotto at the press conference: “Looking at aerodynamics, we wanted to conceive it with an innovative approach. Going to the gallery at the beginning of the project we tried various solutions also in opposite directions and then chose the most promising ones, without being forced by our habits and our past experiences “. Observing the shapes and listening to the declarations of the top management of the two teams, the impression that emerges is that in Ferrari concepts distant from those of the past have been explored. Using words such as “Understand what changed” And “How could we recover” on Elliott’s part underline a link with the past, suggesting that Mercedes has attempted to adapt previous aerodynamic solutions to the new regulatory philosophy, a road supported by the incredible competitiveness of aerodynamic concepts developed at Brixworth in recent years.
The result is two cars at the antipodes. The Ferrari F1-75 is undoubtedly an unconventional and unconventional single-seater, while the Mercedes W13 is closer to its progenitors, drawing a thin line of continuity despite the inevitable and numerous differences. However, similar considerations do not allow for any verdict to be issued, a task that will be up to the track, as in the history of Formula 1 the most revolutionary single-seaters have also proved successful in some cases, while in others it was the more traditional cars that prevailed. However, it is pleasant to see how 2022 is leading to a differentiation of forms and approaches between the teams, waiting for the first feedback from the track that will never arrive soon enough.
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