New Year is often believed to bring new promises and thrills to the entire world. And this applies to the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1, as well, thanks to the massive regulatory-induced campaign that is in the offing. Hence, Mercedes kicked off the year 2022 with a sneak peek at the bodywork of their soon-to-be-revealed F1 challenger.

On the first day of 2022, Mercedes unveiled a picture of the W13 on social media (Instagram and Twitter). The image featured the front view of the W13 under dim lighting and very dark background, and the caption read, “New Year, New Me-rcedes.”

The fans weren’t able to get a good look at the car, as Mercedes were keen not to reveal too much of it and save the mystery for the official car launch, scheduled in February. Well, hardly a day later, more images of the car that starred in Mercedes’ sneak-peek have surfaced on Twitter.

Only this time, the snaps were taken under much brighter lighting.

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Mercedes F1 images reportedly leaked on social media

When Mercedes revealed the picture, it almost looked as if the picture was computerized using the major revealing ahead of the 2021 British Grand Prix. But, turns out, it is indeed a snap of a real-life-sized 2022 F1 car.

British Motorsport racing driver, Bradley Philpot, revealed the images on Twitter, crediting to one of the Twitter users. He wrote, “So it wasn’t just a render based on the F1 mock up! It exists in real life!”

It is quite obvious that this is not the actual design of W13 but rather a show model for the ‘New Year’ post. But, here’s something interesting; Mercedes aren’t alone in this as most of the teams on the grid likely own one such car so they could often tease it to the fans in order to keep them on toes.

Overall, one could well look forward to more such dark-shadowed images from the teams prior to the official livery unveiling. So, will the design of the actual F1 car look pretty much like the ‘mock-up’ car that Mercedes teased a day back?

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