The Brackley squad surprised the paddock when it became the first team to fire up its car, back in December 2021. Today, the W13 E-Performance was finally shown to the world.

The new Mercedes goes back to its pre-2020 silver livery, giving the car an "incredible" look, according to its new driver George Russell.

The return of the Silver Arrows. 🤍 Meet the Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 E Performance. 🤩 pic.twitter.com/NsuEBvbkbK

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) February 18, 2022

Lewis Hamilton, who almost won the 2021 title if not for the “shadow” of the events of Abu Dhabi, according to Toto Wolff, is back for his 16th season In Formula 1 – his 10th for Mercedes - and has expressed how he is still energised and ready to go again, especially with the new-for-2022 cars, addressing rumours that he would retire after the Abu Dhabi drama:

“Well, I’ve never, ever said I was gonna stop. I love doing what I do, and it’s such a privilege, working with this large group of people, you really feel like a part of the family, part of the team, and you’re working towards that common goal, there’s no feeling quite like it.

“It was obviously a difficult time for me, a time where I really needed to take a step back, focusing on being present. I had my family all around me, some great moments. And eventually got to a point where I decided (I was) gonna be attacking again coming into a new season, working with Toto (Wolff) and George (Russell).

“It is exciting seeing George come in and bring his energy, I can already feel that throughout the team, and I think it’s gonna be an exciting season. It’s always a positive when you have new blood, new energy. George’s had an amazing career so far – not only getting to Formula 1, but what he’s done in Formula 1 – it’s gonna be exciting to see him grow and work with him.“

New driver at Mercedes replacing Valtteri Bottas, George Russell has said it feels “natural” for him to be at the Mercedes environment, alongside his “super hero” team-mate Hamilton, and how he is excited for the season ahead:

“There’s so many faces that I’ve known over the last six or seven years now, which, when we start working together (again), we’re straight into business. Obviously, relationships are always built over time, but I already knew so many of the people, and obviously having worked with Lewis (Hamilton), seeing Lewis work when I was a junior, the engineering briefings, that will also feel quite natural, being team-mates with him, racing alongside him.

“You have to go with an open mind. It’s important not to have too many targets, too many goals, because we don’t know what this is going to offer, and you can’t go in with too many preconceived ideas. We’ve got so much change, it’s the biggest change we’ve ever seen for the cars, we have the (new) tyres as well and how that’s gonna work together.

“Obviously with myself, working with a new team, with a new set of engineers, we just have to keep an open mind be dynamic to the situation. I’m sure there’s going to be so much change, so much development across the course of the year, that’s where we really want to focus on, because we know there’s going to be drastic improvements – we hope, improvements – as the season progresses, and that’s where we need to make sure we’re on the right side of that.”

Our W13. 🤍❤️ pic.twitter.com/6fu1k0enA7

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) February 18, 2022

Team Principal and CEO of Mercedes F1, Toto Wolff has explained how passionate he felt the team was when working on this new W13 project. He also mentioned how Mercedes have a good historical record when it comes to big regulation changes such as these, but is wary that they “can’t rely on past success”:

“Ever since work on W13 began, I have seen an excited enthusiasm in our team members like never before, thanks to the scale of opportunity that these technical regulations provide. Towards the end of the year when the car build project truly came together, I felt a deep passion across the whole organisation, not only in the technical arena but across our bases at Brackley and Brixworth who were embracing a mindset of 'we can do this'.

"We did pretty well during the last big regulatory change into the hybrid era and performed well when we went from the narrow to the wide cars in 2017. While we have a good track record, my message is clear: we can't rely on past success for this year's performance, but we can rely on our people, our culture, our structure, and our mindset to do the best possible job for 2022," Wolff concluded.

Hywel Thomas, Managing Director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) has given some insight on the new engine which will power the W13 through 2022:

"Naturally, our 2022 PU builds on the generation of championship-winning Power Units that have been produced at Brixworth since the start of the regulation cycle in 2014. For 2022, it has been a wide and deep project, and we have changed more parts of the PU for this year than in any season since 2014."  

The team will shakedown its new challenger today, at Silverstone, with both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton getting to drive the W13 on track for the first time.

Light mode 🔘 ⚪️ Dark mode

Take a look at some of the @MercedesAMGF1 W13's most striking differences 👀#F1 pic.twitter.com/eXcijlijAP

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 18, 2022