In 2017 following a regulation that marked a clear discontinuity with respect to the previous season, Ferrari and Mercedes showed up at the starting line of the championship with two single-seaters with the opposite philosophy. The SF70 built in Maranello was characterized by a short wheelbase, while the W08 was a ‘bus’: the Rossa had a wheelbase of 3595 millimeters, the Freccia d’Argento reached 3738 and was 14 centimeters longer.
Regulation 2022 has set the maximum wheelbase at 3600 mm, but the designers of the Brackley team preferred not to exploit the maximum of this parameter. According to what is reported by today’s edition of The Gazzetta dello Sport in an analysis by Paolo Filisetti, the W13 will have a wheelbase around 3500 mm. In Mercedes they have therefore decided to build a light car that allows to place ballast in the areas provided for by the regulation to reach the minimum weight of 795 kilos.
The decision to create a short car and therefore more agile in terms of vehicle dynamics aims to achieve a more agile single-seater in slow corners, precisely those that on paper will be those most penalized by the new philosophy on which the regulation is based, characterized by the return of the ground effect. The short wheelbase is the pursuit of agility is a real revolution at Mercedes, a change of course with respect to the characteristics that have made the cars successful, which have so far collected 15 titles out of 16 up for grabs in the turbo-hybrid era.
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