Mercedes has won the constructors' championship for eight consecutive seasons, but Max Verstappen snatched the drivers' title in 2021.
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Mercedes, the reigning world champions, have unveiled the W13, the car that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will race this season, which is built to sweeping new technical regulations. Mercedes has won the constructors’ championship for eight consecutive seasons, but Max Verstappen snatched the drivers’ title from Hamilton on the final lap of the 2021 season. Russell has been promoted to a race seat at Mercedes, replacing Valtteri Bottas after three impressive seasons at Williams, culminating in his first F1 podium last year in Belgium.
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“It just takes you back to being a kid,” said Hamilton at the launch. “I think it’s always exciting watching, I mean with this new era of car, we’ve never seen such a drastic change, right? So it’s such a huge change in so many ways, that it’s just been really interesting seeing the designers and everyone coming together to find the best ways of creating a masterpiece.”
Russell added: “It feels incredible, obviously Lewis and I have driven so many laps in the simulator of this. We’ve seen all the drawings, we’ve had so many meetings and presentations about it, but suddenly seeing it all come together, seeing all of the men and women who have put so much hard work and grit into making this, and coming together here, I think it looks incredible.”
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“And I think the silver [coming] back, we’ve had an incredible livery with the black in the past couple of years – but the silver back on track I think is going to look incredible.”
Later on Friday, when Mercedes completes the first of two permitted filming days at Silverstone, the W13 will make its debut. Hamilton and Russell will alternate driving duties, with the distance covered limited to 100 kilometres.
The car will then travel to Barcelona for three days of pre-season testing next week, before heading to Bahrain for official pre-season testing next month, ahead of the season’s first race at the same location.
