Mercedes unveils 2025 W16 car ahead of Bahrain F1 testing

The Mercedes Method 1 workforce has taken the covers off its 2025 automobile, the W16.

Like its rival groups Mercedes had already revealed the 2025 livery at last week’s F175 launch event in London, utilizing an older mannequin. Now it has unveiled the launch spec of the W16 automobile that its drivers George Russell and debutant Andrea Kimi Antonelli will contest the 2025 season with.

With the W16, Mercedes is aiming to make elementary adjustments to its lineage of ground-effect vehicles which have confirmed very exhausting to get within the optimum set-up window, and have seen dramatic efficiency swings from circuit to circuit.

Russell and Lewis Hamilton managed to win two races apiece throughout 2024, together with a dominant 1-2 in Las Vegas, however at different instances they discovered the W15 a lot much less aggressive and compliant, and difficult to steadiness.

That meant over the steadiness of the season Mercedes struggled to maintain up with its fellow frontrunners and completed fourth within the constructors’ standings, behind McLaren, Ferrari and Pink Bull.

Russell is now the de facto workforce chief on the Silver Arrows after Hamilton’s departure for Ferrari. At simply 18, long-time Mercedes protege Antonelli will grow to be the youngest-ever driver on the squad, with the Italian having been fast-tracked by its junior programme to fill Hamilton’s vacant seat.

“It is going to be a big change this yr,” Russell mentioned. “To be sincere, we are saying yearly we have uncovered an issue, we have solved it, and it is created a brand new one.

“We have most likely been much more disciplined with each change that we have made, and being extra thorough than ever by way of the simulator operating, simply to make sure we’re not going to fall into a brand new entice.

“Thus far, it is a cheap step. It is going to be fairly an fascinating season with how individuals deploy the useful resource between 2025 and 2026.”

The workforce defined it has modified “each aerodynamic floor” of the automobile for 2025, in addition to designing a brand new entrance suspension.

Technical director James Allison added: “Our major focus has been on dialling out the W15’s slight reluctance to show in sluggish corners, together with the imbalance in tyre temperatures that made the automobile inconsistent from session to session.”

Mercedes will conduct a filming day with the W16 on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit on Tuesday forward of the pre-season check on the identical venue on 26-28 February.