Mercedes vs. Ferrari: Side-by-side comparison of their F1 2022 season cars

With the launch of their 2022 cars, Ferrari and Mercedes have assuaged all previous concerns about the new regulations being too prescriptive and leading to generic cars.

Being some of the few with the potential to be title contenders, the two teams have shown off their radically different design philosophies, which is most apparent in their sidepod designs.

The nature of the new regulations forces teams to develop the majority of their downforce through ground-effect. Consequently, the car’s sidepod arrangement plays a major role in the team’s design choice.

Ferrari has gone for a “brave” design to maximize the airflow to the venturi tunnels in the car’s underfloor, which produces more than half of the new cars’ total downforce. The Scuderia has opted for a wide and upwardly positioned sidepod arrangement that gently merges with into the engine cover.

Furthermore, the F1-75 features cooling slats above the sidepod arrangement for cooling. This is similar to the arrangement found on the Aston Martin AMR22, but less extreme.

Meanwhile, the Mercedes W13 has retained the team’s preference for compact packaging. This season sees a significant reduction in wheelbase to 3600mm, which is shorter than the shortest wheelbase car from last season. Despite that, the Silver Arrows have managed to thinly package their car to reduce the overage width.

Unlike the F1-75, the W13 features narrower sidepods that are placed further back in the car. This design has allowed the team to create an enormous side channel between the sidepod and the edges of the floor. This has the potential to create a significant difference in pressure between the air passing from the channel surface and the car’s venturi tunnels, thereby producing plenty of downforce.

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Mercedes reportedly reworked their 2022 PU to aid tighter packaging

Mercedes have long stood by their philosophy of a long and thinly packaged car to extract maximum aero efficiency, and thus have traditionally run a long-wheelbase, low-rake car. This in the past has allowed them to maintain a careful balance between maximum downforce, corner stability and straight-line performance.

With a drastic reduction in the maximum length of the wheelbase for the new season, however, the Silver Arrows had to extensively rework their car to retain their successful strategy.

According to Mercedes HPP (High-Performance Powertrains) boss Hywel Thomas, the German outfit reportedly reworked their 2022 engine extensively in an effort to aid the chassis team in packaging the car as narrowly as possible. Speaking in an interview with F1.com following the team’s car launch last week, Thomas said:

“[We have] changed more parts of the PU this year than in any season since 2014. Changes that allow the chassis team to best exploit the regulations. We might want to rearrange the installation slightly or change the PU layout to get more flexibility in those lap time sensitive areas.”

While it might aid the team in gaining valuable performance, the changes to the power unit might come back to haunt the team if it were to have any reliability issues, especially considering the engine freeze that will be in effect until 2026.