The Mercedes team arrived in Barcelona to carry out the first real tests in their W13 for the 2022 season, with which they will try to revalidate the constructors’ title.
With George Russell at the wheel, after 09:00 in the morning in Barcelona, the Germans put their car back on track, which they subjected to a great correlation work throughout the morning session.
This was done to verify that the data from the wind tunnel and the simulations carried out at Brackley corresponded to reality. The W13 came out of the garage with a large piece mounted behind the rear wheels to measure the airflow passing through that region and thus study the wake and turbulence generated by the moving tires.
Pitot tubes added to the rear wing of the Mercedes W13 in the Barcelona pitlane
Almost all the teams have experimented with the aerodynamics running at competition speed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, especially on the long finish straight, but Mercedes has shown a peculiarity, as they have included some small pitot tubes on the edge of the hind wing.
The photo taken by Giorgio Piola from the press room, located above the teams’ boxes, shows how the German engineers have managed to put these sensors in the car.
Throughout the four hours of the morning, Russell, who begins his adventure as a driver of the star team, was able to shoot up to 77 laps, in addition to finishing third thanks to a time of 1m20.784s with the C3 compounds, at six tenths of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, the leader of the session.
Detail of the rear spoiler and diffuser of the Mercedes W13 in the pitlane of Barcelona
