Brendan Lines

February 14, 2020

Mercedes conducted its first shakedown of the Mercedes AMG F1 W-11 EQ Performance today at Silverstone, this is the first physical look of the car that will head to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix in March.

Simply called the W-11, its launch also marked the beginning of Mercedes’ tenth year as a Formula 1 team, quite fittingly Michael Schumacher’s W-01 was trackside.

Mercedes W-11 at Silverstone – Image: Mercedes

Team principle Toto Wolff and six-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton were in attendance, but it was Driver Valtteri Bottas who had the honours taking the wheel of the W-11.

The W-11 on track with Valtteri Bottas – Image: Mercedes

For Bottas it is the first time he has seen the car in its complete form.

“Its all completely new machinery, nothing is the same as previous cars, to get to know it feels, how the car handles, the aero feeling and how the engine feels, it’s exciting because this is going to be the weapon we are using this year,” he said.

Valtteri Bottas at the wheel of the W-11 Shakedown – Image: Mercedes

Despite being eager to throw the W-11 flat-out into Abbey on the first lap, Bottas said the day is not quite about testing the limits of the car — yet.

“It takes some time obviously and the shakedown is more about de-bugging things and seeing how things actually run and getting the data out of it, and the real work with the car starts then next week,” he said.

Testing of the W-11 will commence at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next week.