At the end of the morning session of day 1 of pre-season testing in Bahrain, Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto met the media and shared his thoughts on the events seen in the start of this second testing session at the Bahrain International circuit. The focus was inevitably on Mercedes putting a W13 car without any sidepods on track at the start of the Sakhir test. With the design so extremely different to their rivals’ challengers for the 2022 Formula One season, it has raised questions about the legality of the sidepod-less car.
Here are the comments made by Mattia Binotto in an interview for the German automobile magazine Auto Motor und Sport regarding the Mercedes W13:
Looking at the Mercedes, it’s a great car – it’s not a surprise to us. A great car, [a] good concept. Quite different to the one we’ve got! It’s interesting in the cooling layout, radiator positioning on the sidepods. I think, again, something which looks quite interesting. On the legality overall, I don’t think that we can argue.” – he said.
“As Toto (Wolff) said, Mercedes had to go through a process with the FIA who is the one responsible for policing it and making sure it’s fully legal. I would be surprised if Mercedes is doing something illegal as well, so that’s not the point.” The Ferrari boss, however, stressed that there is a point to be discussed: “The mirror solution surprised me. That’s what we should talk about. I think that’s something that, for the future, needs to be addressed. Already, in the past, we always argued that the mirrors should not have any aero purpose. It should be there just to look behind. The way that they treated or designed their car, certainly there is a significant aero purpose in the mirrors itself.” – Mattia Binotto concluded.
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