Mercedes impress in Bahrain with no side pods on W13

Mercedes has shown for a moment that you should not count them out for the world title by a long shot. As expected, the German racing team arrived in Bahrain with a car without side pods and there are more parts of the car that stand out.

Mercedes had a solid first week of testing in Barcelona where the team drove plenty of miles. That way the team of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell could work with all that data in the factory, but it soon became clear that the team have been keeping their cards close to their chests.

In Bahrain, Mercedes have arrived with an all-new car and those rumours turned out to be true. Photos taken on Thursday morning from the Bahrain International Circuit show Mercedes' side pods, or rather the lack thereof. We also now see the air intakes in the chassis, as we saw earlier with Ferrari.