Russell: "W13's been on a diet since Barcelona"

F1 News

10 March 2022 at 19:34
Last update 10 March 2022 at 23:26
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  • GPblog.com

Mercedes had a solid day of testing in Bahrain, evidently going for data collection rather than speed. The W13 hit the track with a radical new look; George Russell says the car was put on a diet between the weeks of testing.

Red Bull and Mercedes go for mileage

Mercedes, like Red Bull Racing, had a solid test day in Bahrain. Both went mainly for mileage and data rather than speed. Why Mercedes went for the data may be obvious. The W13 appeared in Bahrain with a completely different look than in Barcelona. This was mainly due to the radical design of the side of the car. The side pods of the W13 have almost completely disappeared. This bold design immediately caused the first arguments of 2022 on the grid.

Lewis Hamilton and Russell both took the W13 onto the asphalt today and both drove more than 60 laps. The total laps of 121 ended up being sixteen laps less than rival Red Bull Racing drove. Russell, Hamilton's new teammate, drove the tenth-fastest time of the day on a medium tire with a 1:35:977. The Mercedes drivers didn't say much after the test day about the new side pods and the performance of the W13 in Bahrain, but Russell did tweet wittily that the W13 is already on a diet.

What is Mercedes still busy with?

The side pods are almost non-existent, making the body of the car even narrower and the floor more protruding and even more visible. The danger of this protruding floor is that it has become more vulnerable to so-called 'porpoising'. At Haas and Alfa Romeo we already saw in Barcelona that parts of the floor broke off when the car was heavily rocked up and down. Also in Bahrain Mercedes seemed to suffer from the problem, but for now nothing broke off.

Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin did talk more about the first day of testing in Bahrain, saying that it is harder to find the balance than in Barcelona and that there is still a lot to do on the W13. Russell also mentions in his tweet that there is still a lot of work to be done on the new car. In doing so, the Brit says that he is proud of the team and how hard they are pushing to get it right in time.