As dawn breaks on a brand-new era for Formula One, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team launched its challenger for the 2022 season — the Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance.
With the sport’s most significant technical regulation change in a generation, the factories at Brackley and Brixworth have been bristling with activity to respond to the challenge and identify every possible opportunity to unlock performance.
After 18 months of hard work, the end result is the W13, a car which is 98% new and freshly designed from tip-to-toe with minimal carry-over from its predecessor.
Behind the wheel of the W13 for the 2022 season will be a new driver partnership of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
“Ever since work on W13 began, I have seen an excited enthusiasm in our team members like never before, thanks to the scale of opportunity that these technical regulations provide,” said Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. “Toward the end of the year when the car build project truly came together, I felt a deep passion across the whole organization, not only in the technical arena but across our bases at Brackley and Brixworth who were embracing a mindset of ‘we can do this.’
“We did pretty well during the last big regulatory change into the hybrid era and performed well when we went from the narrow to the wide cars in 2017. While we have a good track record, my message is clear: we can’t rely on past success for this year’s performance, but we can rely on our people, our culture, our structure, and our mindset to do the best possible job for 2022.”
The team’s 2022 challenger will be named the ‘Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance’, with W13 representing the thirteenth car produced by the Mercedes-AMG works team since re-entering F1 in 2010. The ‘E Performance’ technology label signifies the continued close collaboration between the team and Mercedes-AMG, with the label featuring on all new AMG performance hybrid cars.
One striking difference on the 2022 cars will be new 18-inch wheels, replacing the previous 13-inch rims. Their impact on racing remains to be seen but the early signs are positive.
Another crucial element the engineers have had to contend with in the development of the 2022 car is the freezing of certain components which are now locked in for several years, including the gearbox and Power Unit. The stakes for getting both components as strong as can be, while maintaining reliability, have rarely been higher.
The 2022 Power Unit builds upon the generation of championship-winning PUs produced by the team at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) since 2014 and while the PU regulation changes for 2022 haven’t been as significant or noticeable as the wholesale chassis changes, the challenge has been no less formidable.