‘It’s easy to say we’re having a tough time when we’ve been through the last eight Formula 1 world championships, winning them all, and we’re not in that position this year,’ says Mike Elliott, technical director of Mercedes AMG Formula 1, on the team’s 2022 performance to date.
‘We’re bound to think it’s not brilliant. However, looking at a wider context, the 2022 regulations intended to mix up the field and improve the show. In that way, Formula 1 achieved those outcomes.’
At time of writing, with four races left of the season, Mercedes was sitting third in the Constructors’ Championship, 67 points behind Ferrari and an insurmountable 232 points behind Red Bull Racing.
Mercedes’ change of fortune since the introduction of the new era has been well documented. Its car this season, the AMG F1 W13 E Performance (the 13 referring to it being the 13th car produced by the Mercedes-AMG works team since re-entering F1 in 2010), is the product of a top to bottom re-design in line with this year’s Formula 1 regulations. The only carry-over element from its predecessor is the steering wheel.
Blank slate
Operating from a blank slate, with a steep development curve, the team’s Brackley and Brixworth engineering squads have had to push even harder than the previous generation of Formula 1, where they stole a march on the competition and carried it through to the end of the era. Unlike the prior dominance of Mercedes machinery, though, the W13 has had a bumpy coming of age.
For context, the 2022 rules have reduced
