Mercedes today launched its challenger for the 2022 Formula One championship, the W13. Behind the wheel of the W13 for this year will be a new driver partnership of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who graduates from the Mercedes Young Driver Programme and joins the British driver.
Mercedes is expected to be the main title contender given its performance during the last years, but Team Principal Toto Wolff explained that the extra wind tunnel time which is available for Scuderia Ferrari as a result of the fact that the Maranello team finished sixth in the 2020 Formula 1 constructors’ championship could give it as much as a “two-tenths” of a second gain in lap time over opponents who finished higher up that campaign.
With the goal of leveling the playing field and improving in the on-track action, Formula 1 introduced a sliding scale on wind tunnel usage for 2021, which means that the team that finished last in 2020 (Williams), were allowed the most number of runs, while the title–winners that championship (Mercedes) had the least.
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“The ability of having more wind tunnel time is of course something you need to you need to bear in mind” – Team Principal Toto Wolff replied, when asked regarding Scuderia Ferrari’s chances and interesting position ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season, more precisely being a very well-funded team with more development time than its direct rivals:
“The advantage of finishing sixth versus first over the course of the season is a couple of tenths [of a second]. And of course you need to catch up, but we are part of these regulations. I think it’s good to create competition and so we shall see where everyone is.” – the Mercedes boss concluded.
