Mercedes have denied reports that their 2022 car failed a side crash test from the FIA, insisting that the W13 is ready to go for the new season.
The Brackley-based team were said to have failed the side-on collision test, as the Italian edition of Motorsport.com had reported.
“The static test was not passed a few days ago so the body of the silver arrow is not yet approved by the FIA,” stated the report.
However, the eight-time constructors’ champions have rebuked this, tweeting confirmation that they have successfully completed crash examinations.
“[We] completed full FIA homologation on January 13,” the Silver Arrows said in a tweet.
The report went on to reveal that Mercedes needed to find an “extreme solution” in a bid to pass homologation.
Formula 1 regulations will undergo radical changes in 2022 as a ground effect-led aerodynamic philosophy is adopted in an attempt to facilitate closer racing.
Chief technical officer at the team, James Allison, began working in Formula 1 in 1991 with Benetton, and he confirmed that he has never witnessed a change in the regulations this expansive.
“I’ve been working in the sport for over 30 years and they dwarf anything else I’ve ever seen,” he said in a Mercedes YouTube video.
“I suspect if I were to dig out Wikipedia and go through every season of the sport that there’s ever been, there would be nothing to match the scale of the change that comes with 2022.”
He therefore indicated that teams are having to re-imagine the design philosophy of their cars.
“The rules set is not only enormous – the regulations are about twice the size of what’s preceded them – but they’re almost entirely different from what came before them, and that has meant that we’ve had to reinvent the car, tip to toe,” he explained.
As well as the chassis, the engines will have 20 fewer horsepower than last year, and the tyres have gone up to 18 inches in an overhaul of both the aesthetics and the physics of the machines.
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“Everywhere you look, it’s completely new. Not just new as in new parts, but new as in a completely new philosophy, a completely different aerodynamic package, different brakes, different wheels, crucially different tyres.”
The report also suggested that Red Bull failed a front crash test at the Cranfield centre, where British-based teams go to have their cars homologated.
However, this is reportedly not a first time occurrence due to designer Adrian Newey’s aggressive philosophy, and the failed test will merely push their car launch back a little.
The 2022 season begins on 20 March in Bahrain, following two tests in Barcelona and Sakhir.
Sir Lewis Hamilton is set to be joined this season by George Russell, who has signed from Williams to replace the departing Valtteri Bottas at Mercedes.
The Silver Arrows will unveil their new car, the W13, on 18 February.
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