Here comes great news for the fans of Lewis Hamilton that Mercedes say their new Formula 1 car contains various “scaled down upsets” in configuration as they try to stay one stage clear of the field.
The W07 cross breed, with which Mercedes are going for a third back to back title twofold and Lewis Hamilton a drivers’ cap trap, was revealed on Sunday.
Technical chief Paddy Lowe said: “Our priority has been to identify the areas we were weakest and improve them.
“There were a lot of things that needed improving for 2016.”
Best on the planet Hamilton will drive the new car at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain on Monday when pre-season testing gets going.
Lowe indicated the races Mercedes did not win a year ago – especially Singapore, where they endured an oddly uncompetitive weekend – as inspiration to step forward with the car. Mercedes’ executive director (technical) said, “While the car may look very similar to its predecessor from the outside, underneath there are quite a lot of mini-revolutions that make up an overall evolution for the new season”.
Mercedes have commanded subsequent to F1 changed to turbo cross breed power-units in 2014 and Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell said the organization had made a “decent stride” in execution over the winter.
He said a choice by governing body the FIA to relax the confinements on engine improvement from a year ago to this had implied Mercedes “haven’t needed to limit any of our advancement action to a particular region”.
He added: “Anything which could yield a decent efficiency improvement – and therefore a decent performance improvement – has been explored and we’re now working to make sure our package is sufficiently durable in time for Melbourne.” Hamilton will drive the car on Monday, with the title holder and team-mate Nico Rosberg exchanging over the remaining days of the test.
The new Mercedes has effectively turned its first laps in a brief test at Silverstone on Friday, where Hamilton and Rosberg both drove the car.
