What we learned on day one of the second 2022 F1 test

With the second Formula 1 test of 2022 underway in Bahrain, the rivalry between Red Bull and Mercedes has once again been reignited. Matt Kew looks at the latest episode in their fierce fight, this time centring around Mercedes' radical new sidepod design...

If there’s a perfect snapshot of the mentality that Red Bull harbours towards Mercedes - and Mercedes possesses regarding Red Bull - then oddly, it’s to be found in the lyrics of a classic show tune. ‘Anything you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you’. So far in 2022, that involves scrapping for sidepod supremacy.

Wind back 15 days to the first morning of the 2022 Formula 1 pre-season ‘shakedown’ at Barcelona and the artistry of the aerodynamics team led by Adrian Newey was the talk of the town. Even in the context of the new rules unexpectedly paving the way for greater design differentiation between teams, the RB18 looked radically different to its rivals.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport's F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 after stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham's banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing is undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.