Gallery: Mercedes-AMG F1 W13 2022 F1 car revealed

What do we have? A car that follows the prescriptive rules but that is also unique. Up front, a very low nose with a dramatic loading two-thirds of the way out towards the endplates. The way is very clear for those very visible inlets for the under-car tunnels. At the side, we also have a wavey vortex-generating floor signature.

Above that, we have a sidepod that hugs right in to the rear of car nice and quickly after the compact inlet. There are no slashes atop the sidepods akin to Ferrari or Aston Martin, or indeed accommodating bulges for the engine. All ventilation for the radiators and engine comes out of a slightly broad rear end opening – the only broad thing about this car. There’s also a relatively generic top inlet and a single central wing support, for what is a waved wing surface – probably the most varied take on the rear wing we’ve yet seen.

Generally speaking and overall, this is a very vac-packed and compact design for minimal width and protrusion into airflow as possible, the opposite for instance of what we saw from Aston Martin. This is a car that really brings into focus how varied the approaches (the real ones that we’ve seen) have been to this new ruleset.

As for the livery, we have a return to the traditional silver hue for the Silver Arrows in combination with the usual flashes of Petronas blue, as more Ineos Red starts to creep in on the aero highlights and on the airbox.

Even the Mercedes naysayers will have to admit that this is one of the most attractive cars we’ve seen. The real question, on everyone’s minds and no doubt the minds of the team, is whether the W13 can continue Mercedes’ winning ways into this ground-up new era of cars and cost caps. We’re oh-so excited to watch it all unfold.