Mercedes reveals F1 W07 Hybridposted in F121 | 02 | 2016

    WORLD CHAMPIONS MERCEDES has officially unveiled the car it believes will continue its domination of Formula One in 2016 (see more photographs of the 2016 Mercedes F1 race car). The W07 Hybrid ran for the first time in private testing at Silverstone on Friday, and the team says the car has been "optimised absolutely everywhere".

    According to technical executive director Paddy Lowe, despite Mercedes lifting the constructors' title, and Lewis Hamilton the Drivers' Championship in the last two seasons, the team is still for perfection

    "After a highly successful season all round in 2015, our priority has been to identify the areas in which we were weakest and to try to improve on those," Lowe said today.

    "Our objective is excellence in all areas and, while we had some fantastic results last year, there are many areas in which we can still be much better.

    "That's the kind of culture we try to instil throughout the whole organisation, one of constantly striving to reach something better.

    "We had a number of races that didn't go to plan in 2015 — Singapore in particular — so there were a lot of things that needed improving for 2016.

    "We are seeking optimisation absolutely everywhere."

    Related: Ferrari lifts the wraps from 2016 F1 car

    The new car will be put through its paces on Monday for the first full day of official of testing at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit, with Hamilton at the wheel. The triple world champ will also drive on Wednesday, with team-mate Nico Rosberg driving the car on Tuesday and Thursday.

    and Mercedes believes it will have little opportunity to upgrade its 2016 car ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix once Formula 1 once testing starts tomorrow.

    Previously teams have begun testing with a 'launch spec' car and added substantial updates over the course of what used to be a three-test pre-season spread across a month or more.

    This year there are just two tests, back to back, followed by a two-week gap to Australia.

    "We've now reached a new minimum in terms of winter testing, with two banks of four days," Lowe explained.

    "That's something the team has been preparing for by producing better designs and undertaking better preparation and testing in the R&D lab so that we're as well placed as possible to hit the ground running.

    "What's different for 2016 is actually not so much that there are only two tests, but that they're both very close to the first race of the season.

    "This has notably reduced the extent to which we can upgrade the car from 'launch spec' to the first-race spec.

    Related: McLaren unveils 2016 F1 race car

    "That window is now very narrow, which reduces the number of potential upgrades ahead of the opening grand prix weekend."

    And Lowe also feels there has been little chance for the car to undergo a significant overhaul because of the ongoing rules stability.

    "It's very tough to find performance under a stable set of regulations," he continued, "and we were particularly pleased with how the car turned out in 2015 when we had the same situation.

    "The team did a fantastic job, digging very deep to find all sorts of innovations in areas that might have been considered static.

    "2016 is another carry-over year from a regulatory point of view, and potential gains inevitably become harder to find under these circumstances.

    "This is what tests an engineering team the most and I must say that this team has been very good at that. It's far easier to find performance when you have a new set of rules, that's for sure.

    "It's difficult to have a complete revolution when the rules have stayed pretty much the same year on year. But we aim to make minor revolutions wherever we can, even within a small context.

    "We may look at a completely new packaging solution or suspension concept, for instance.

    "So while the car may look very similar to its predecessor from the outside — as is inherent within stable regulations — underneath there are quite a lot of mini revolutions that make up an overall evolution for the new season."

    Related: Red Bull reveals 2016 F1 livery

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    Jim McGill

     

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