Pat Symonds, part of the team behind the 2022 rules overhaul, reveals that Mercedes literally resorted to rocket science in its approach.

"This is a very novel approach," he tells Sky Sports, when asked about the German team's controversial sidepods.

"I like to see novel interpretations," he continues, "and I have to say it's not one that I'd expected to see. I'm still really impressed at how they're getting the air through to cool the car, but they obviously are.

"I think it will have got their rivals sort of going back to the rulebook with their red pencil, and seeing just what they've done," he adds.

In drafting the rules overhaul, Symonds and his colleagues were convinced that bigger sidepod inlets would be the way to go.

"When we developed the aerodynamics of this set of regulations, obviously, we looked at lots of things," he says, "not just downforce producing, but we had to look at brake cooling, at tyre heating and particularly we had to look at engine cooling.

"We were using a bigger inlet than that to get the cooling," says of the W13. "I think on the Mercedes they have a few little tricks in there that help them in this respect.

"For example the intercooler, is a very, very neat device," he admits, "it's a water-air intercooler, which of course Mercedes have had for a little while, but I think this is a little bit different.

"The intercooler that I was talking about, I think, comes from Reaction Engines in Oxfordshire, the people who are doing this sort of air breathing rocket motor, and the sort of spin-off from that has been this really extremely efficient heat exchanger technology.

"I think that's part of the reason why they've been able to produce the car the way they have."

Check out our Friday gallery from Bahrain, here.