The Mercedes F1 team announced on Tuesday (January 18) that they will launch their 2022 car, the W13, on February 18 2022.
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The Mercedes F1 team are the latest Formula 1 team to reveal the launch date of their 2022 car. The 2021 constructor’s champions, who are aiming for a ninth straight team title, announced their launch date on Tuesday (January 18).
Taking to social media, the team shared a teaser. “18/2/22. Meet the Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance,” they said along with a graphic depicting the date.
The team have been teasing their new-look car for a while. There’s also been rumours the team will return to their silver livery from next season.
18/2/22. ?️ Meet the Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance ? pic.twitter.com/uv6oCGmNHh
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) January 18, 2022
Mercedes are now the fourth team to have announced their launch date. The first team to do so was Aston Martin, who said the AMR22 will be revealed on February 10.
The second team to have announced their launch date was Ferrari. The Maranello-based side will reveal their 2022 machine on February 17.
The third team to do so was McLaren, whose date was announced only yesterday (January 17). They will be revealing their new F1 car on February 11.
The reason for the extra excitement among fans this year is the new technical regulations. Car launches are always an exciting time for fans, as they get a first look at the season’s car.
However, the 2022 cars will be very different from the cars that have been raced in the last 5 seasons. This is because F1 is bringing in a host of new aerodynamic regulations in a bid for closer racing.
The 2022 regulations will seek to eliminate the problems of “dirty air”, thus making for closer wheel-to-wheel racing among teams. There’s also going to be a budget cap imposed, in theory levelling out the playing field.
The German-based team might have lost out the world driver’s championship to Max Verstappen in 2021. However, they won an eighth straight constructor’s title and the car continued to show good form.
The team have plenty of reasons for optimism going into the next season. Junior driver George Russell will join the team next year onwards and is expected to be an upgrade on Valtteri Bottas.
However, there are question marks over the participation of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. This is because he is yet to comment on speculation surrounding his retirement.
Hamilton is said to be disillusioned with the controversial way in which the Abu Dhabi GP ended. He is also supposedly waiting for the FIA to conduct their investigation into that race and determine concrete change before committing to the sport again.
