Listen to this article While having no sidepods at all is somewhat detached from reality, there’s good reason to suggest that Mercedes will introduce a new package that shrinks the W13’s considerably more than the ones that the team benchmarked for performance in Barcelona. In order to imagine the direction Mercedes might be travelling in, we only have to look as far as Williams – its extreme sidepod and engine cover design features one of the shortest sidepod solutions on the grid (main image, above). In the case of Williams, it has also been equipped with a pass-through duct, which collects airflow in the upper portion of the sidepod inlet and passes it out through the outer, upper corner of the bodywork, helping to frame the flow around that portion of the sidepod (blue arrows in the animation, below). In order to achieve this narrow-body effect, Williams has jumped on another bandwagon that’s been growing in appeal up and down the grid: Saddle coolers. Red Bull, Alpha Tauri and McLaren have all used more expansive solutions in this regard …