The rumours were true earlier this week; Mercedes have put together a car without any side-pods in a potential game-changer moment at the start of this new era in Formula 1.
© Provided by Give Me Sport mercedes sidepods
Bahrain testing is underway this morning with three days of running on the agenda at the Sakhir circuit, before we go racing at the same venue for the first Grand Prix of the season next weekend.
Certainly, there’s a great sense of intrigue around this campaign with a swathe of new technical regulations being introduced.
And, that said, that has provided a chance for teams to be at their most creative with the designs of their new cars, with Mercedes perhaps stealing the limelight on the first day of the test.
We’ve seen a number of different approaches this year to side-pods with Ferrari, Williams and Red Bull all showing off quite reduced elements but no team has opted to bin them altogether, until now.
Indeed, in something that is a throwback to a bygone era, we’ve now got an F1 car running without any side-pods whatsoever, with rumours that Mercedes were going to be doing exactly that circulating this week.
Take a look at what they’ve done via Albert Fabrega on Twitter:
Los no pontones de Mercedes . Queee???
The no sidepods of Mercedes . Whaaat?????#f12022 pic.twitter.com/WSlesjHOWf
— Albert Fabrega (@AlbertFabrega) March 10, 2022
It’s a hugely impressive bit of creative engineering and potentially could give Mercedes a big upper hand at the start of the season if it delivers performance.
Keyword: Mercedes unveil stunning new design to F1 car