The teams of the highest category are finalizing the details of the new single-seaters for the 2022 season, the first with the new rules. The teams will have to present very different cars to those seen in the past at the Barcelona test, which will be held from February 23 to 25.
However, to win the title for the ninth consecutive time, Mercedes will have to repeat the so-called lateral crash test, a test necessary to receive FIA homologation and demonstrate that its car meets safety requirements.
The Germans announced that the presentation date of their W13 will be February 18, but they have not yet received the stamp of the regulatory body. The team that has dominated the entire hybrid era is not very worried about it, since they tried to pass this side impact test with an extreme solution, and since it has exceeded the limits, they will have to remedy it to comply with safety measures.
As of this year, the FIA no longer allows the anti-intrusion carbon cone that gave engineers a little more freedom to position the radiator inlets higher up on last generation cars.
James Allison and Mike Elliott , two of the team’s most important technicians, already had another plan in mind in case they didn’t pass the test, and it won’t have a big impact on the start of the W13 before it hits the track at Montmeló.
The car of the Germans, according to the latest information, would return to being silver after two courses with a black decoration, and will be close to the limit of the maximum wheelbase of 3,600 mm, although its strong point will continue to be the power unit.
The Mercedes engine will have a renewed turbine that will give them, a priori, more power in the grand prix and they will not repeat the problems that they suffered at the end of the campaign with the wear of the components.
The teams are busy solving all the problems to have the vehicle of the new era of Formula 1 ready, like Red Bull, which will have to pass this same test with the RB18 soon.
In Ferrari, one of the groups that most promises with the 2022 regulations, homologated its chassis well in advance and without any apparent problem, although the single-seaters that will be fighting for the world title in the year with the most races are still unknown. of the history of the category.
