Mercedes confirm rumours with stunning new-look car at F1 testing in Bahrain

The rumours were true earlier this week; Mercedes have put together a car without any side-pods in a potential game-changer moment at the start of this new era in Formula 1.

Bahrain testing is underway this morning with three days of running on the agenda at the Sakhir circuit, before we go racing at the same venue for the first Grand Prix of the season next weekend.

Certainly, there’s a great sense of intrigue around this campaign with a swathe of new technical regulations being introduced.

And, that said, that has provided a chance for teams to be at their most creative with the designs of their new cars, with Mercedes perhaps stealing the limelight on the first day of the test.

We’ve seen a number of different approaches this year to side-pods with Williams and Red Bull showing off quite unique styles but no team has opted to bin them altogether, until now.

Indeed, in something that is a throwback to a bygone era, we’ve now got an F1 car running without any side-pods whatsoever, with rumours that Mercedes were going to be doing exactly that circulating this week.

Take a look at what they’ve done via Albert Fabrega on Twitter:

Los no pontones de Mercedes . Queee???The no sidepods of Mercedes . Whaaat?????#f12022 pic.twitter.com/WSlesjHOWf

It’s a hugely impressive bit of creative engineering and potentially could give Mercedes a big upper hand at the start of the season if it delivers performance.