Mercedes W07: First pictures revealed

2016 F1 season

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Mercedes has revealed the first images of the new W07 as the team prepares to defend the world championship titles it won in 2015 and 2014. The car is outwardly very close in design to the W06 which won 16 races last year.

“The car may look very similar to its predecessor from the outside,” said executive director for technical Paddy Lowe, “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”.

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

Mercedes has led the way in power unit development since the current V6 turbo hybrids were introduced two years ago. Engine chief Andy Cowell said the team have chased further efficiency gains with the new Mercedes-Benz PU106C.

“To get the performance out of this new generation of power units, you need to chase efficiency. That’s both combustion efficiency and efficiency in the various energy transition steps – i.e. MGU-H, MGU-K, turbocharger, power electronics and batteries.”

“We’re constantly working on every single piece of the puzzle to improve performance at the crankshaft, while also seeking to ensure we don’t suffer any of the problems we had last year with reliability. So, it’s about getting down to the root cause of issues and making sure that everything is robust across our whole process, as much as extracting performance.”

“Many people thought that there was not much opportunity to move things forward,” Cowell added, “but that has not been the case.” He expects teams to find more gains for fuel and lubricants development in the year ahead.

“There have been significant new advances – and fuel and lubricants have been one of the main focus areas. Our 2015 mid-season update incorporated a sizeable step in fuel performance from Petronas. Then, later on in the year, we also introduced a new lubricant.”

“We’ve made further progress in the way we’ve designed the combustion system and also enhanced the properties of the lubricants to reduce friction in the engine.”

Mercedes W07 pictures

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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57 comments on “Mercedes W07: First pictures revealed”

  1. the only ones without the ugly nose snippet it seems

    Looks kinda good I guess, I always liked the “new” mercedes livery colours, a bit out of the ordinary but still classical in some way

    I just can’t ever get away from the fact of how ugly and front/end heavy the front wings look, they look like giant mustaches.. ugh ugh ugly (not unique for mercedes though, it’s all of them gillet fusion 3000 wings)

    1. @dr-jekyll Yep, and then they tell you that you cannot follow another car in F1. They hold complicated talks as to how improve the show when the solution is right in front of their eyes!(pun intended)

      Simplify those front wings dramatically and you solve the problem. They have no benefit for real world cars anyway. Want more downforce? get it from the underside where it’s not affected by turbulence

      1. @montreal95 I can’t agree more

        And then also every race we get to see peope nudge eachother in the start and drive around with flippity flappity parts for an entire race, it just looks shoddy to me

        1. @dr-jekyll Yep, another problem that would be solved with smaller, simpler front wings. And there’ll be less punctures too

          Every reasonable person knows the simplest solution is usually the best. But since when F1 is reasonable?

      2. Simplify the front wings and you’ll have Newey and Marko beating down your door for not allowing them to cheat spend compete their way out of the doldrums!

    2. Na, sorry nur the Gilette Front Wings still don’t Beat the joke-rear Wings in Terms of Optical silliness. Those are like Handles on wind-up Toys.
      Also my Cell seems To consider most of These words names :P

      1. Writing in Second Language with autocorrect. *but

  2. Is it the lighting or the livery is really dark than previous years? Looks sleek though!

    1. Yeah it does look darker than the previous cars. I will assume it is the lighting that is the problem.

      I think Mercedes Media/Graphics/whoever-is-responsible-for-the-launch-images should try as much as possible to study previous images and therefore take the new images with similar lighting and angles. It certainly helps fans and the wider media community – reporters and bloggers, a quick glimpse on visible changes that have been made on the car.

      I have tried comparing the two cars but it seems the pictures even have different scales which ultimately affects one’s judgement on whether say a side pod is larger or smaller, the fin on the air inlet hood above the driver’s head is higher or smaller, etc.

      Over the years, I have noticed that Ferrari take very seriously how their images are taken and sent out. Kudos to them.

      Overall, there doesn’t seem to be major changes on the outside. Why change something that already works?

      On a side note, it seems Mercedes have lost their partnership with Blackberry.

      1. “Mercedes have lost their partnership with Blackberry” I’m really sorry for Blackberry…

      2. ” reporters and bloggers, a quick glimpse on visible changes that have been made on the car.”

        You don’t think F1 teams are that silly do you? :] They show you what they want to show you at this stage.

        All launch pictures will have been thoroughly scrutinized to not give anything away that they don’t want to give away.

        1. You don’t think F1 teams are that silly do you?

          Of course not. But then you don’t think Ferrari are that silly ,using your term, to each year send out good quality images, taken under good lighting conditions, from the same/similar angles and having almost the same scales/proportions?

          They of course don’t give you details of what they don’t want you to see. But then one can easily make comparisons, even without being a technical expert, based on the images they are presented with.

    2. No, it actually has more black and is overall a bit darker. They put up several videos to youtube and they all look like these pictures. Even in daylight.

  3. That top intake looks huge compared to other teams, but I can see that it’s split into different sections. I’m assuming it’s cooling of some sort?

    1. @capable That’s what I think too. There are many different components that need different amounts of cooling now. It’s a PU not just an engine

    2. @capable many teams have sub intakes for cooling, usually under roll-loop. Last year Lotus had side intakes for cooling which is actually same concept of Mercedes this year, just seems more unified. Big, wide, low intakes. Interesting approach.

    3. The roll hoop intake is mostly for the ICE/Turbo intake, but can also be split to divert air to help cool the gearbox. Most of the cooling systems are in the sidepds.

      I saw it and smirked, thinking they’re going bigger on the turbo :)

  4. So Mercedes designers have been drinking with Williams designers instead of working, it looks like 2015 car. Air intake is massive tho.

    1. @marik, considering how successful the 2015 car was and how much of a pace advantage it had, why would you want to change that philosophy? Incremental evolution worked extremely well for Newey, after all (in his own words, the RB7, RB8 and RB9 were just updated versions of the RB6).

      1. I know, I know, but the similarity between 2015 and 2016 cars is a bit striking for me, especially looking at Williams’ car.

  5. For 3rd year running the most beautiful car on the grid. No ugly nose. No messed up psychedelic liveries or boring white liveries with a “look good” stripe. It just looks like an F1 car. It looks good and it goes like hell. There’s a lesson in there for the others, if they’re willing to listen

    1. Yes it certainly is a beautiful car. The livery has always been good – relaxed and easygoing in a classic kind of way. Laidback livery + a beautiful nose + massive power to tap into as and when needed = recipe for victory.

  6. I find it interesting that the green part looks like a huge Puma sponsor though Puma isn’t onboard with Mercedes anymore

    1. Look again, they’re still being sponsored by Puma, look at the drivers outfits.

      1. You’re absolutely right! Strange though that Puma sponsors Ferrari and Red Bull as well

  7. That stripe is the Puma stripe.

    http://hausofrihanna.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/puma-suede-classic-black-sneakers.jpg

    I know they’re a sponsor, but that’s interesting.

  8. Looks like a winner to me.

    Slimmer engine cover towards the the top indicates a less bulky PU than last year and massive amounts of free space at the rear backs this up.

    Sticking with the same nose concept proves they’re happy with it and are confident in the performance it will continue to give them.

    Like someone else said, it just looks right, and looks like it will work.

  9. Interesting details, specially engine intake.

  10. The airbox is always what I fear most of, together with the nose… and boy is this horrible!

    1. This car looks mighty! I say that even if I’m not a Mercedes fan. Let’s be frank about it, nothing ‘orrible on this car!

  11. At Ferrari car someone see a Marlboro sign, a mute advertising on the engine cover . I think Mercedes has the same .

    1. Eh?

      I’ve never seen Mercedes tobacco.

  12. To me the enormous round top air intake says there’s been some original thinking.

    Paddy is sounding rather under-promising about it, but I sense he likes the numbers he’s been getting.

    1. I think they are afraid of Ferrari to much. The positive is – in my opinion – we might have a very interesting championship.

      1. I reckon Mercedes really do want Ferrari to be up there @Boomerang. They want the rules to stay as they are and not give Red Bull and Bernie more ammunition to militate for a shakeup. Also they want to be popular, not the bad guys. In many ways the last thing Mercedes need is a third dominant season.

        Ferrari on the other hand has, as ever, the whole Italian media breathing down their necks demanding victory, along with Marchionne.

        So I’m feeling more fear in the Ferrari camp, but yes we could finally get Seb vs Lewis, with luck.

  13. Oh yes! Another stunner from the team. Cant wait for testing to begin tomorrow.

  14. Simple and Sexy.

  15. FlyingLobster27
    21st February 2016, 9:40

    This actually looks good. In the sense that I can’t think of anything bad to say about it that doesn’t apply to current F1-spec cars in general.

  16. I find it really fascinating how so many other teams have landed on the tab nose solution and Mercedes are just happy with their simple design.

    Either Mercedes have a solution they can pass the crash tests with the others can replicate which given the number of crash tests Red Bull did last year I find unlikely, or they have a tab nosed solution waiting in the wings but until another team comes close they don’t need that extra tenth or whatever it’s worth and are enjoying the aesthetics as long as they can.

    1. I believe the other teams are struggling to make a nose like this pass the crash test. If rumours are to be believed, Williams are hoping to have a merc style nose by the start of the season

  17. I like it

  18. I have to say I quite like the black end plates, it gives the car a bit more cohesive of a design and reminds me of the 90s for some reason.

    Quite like the different approach in terms of the nose and top air intake as well, probably the most visually pleasing car to me so far.

  19. The car may look very similar to its predecessor from the outside,” said executive director for technical Paddy Lowe,as is inherent within stable regulations.

    It is interesting to hear that from Paddy Lowe regarding the striking external similarities between the new car and the previous version considering that Ferrari were able to make a lot of changes to their own car.

    Are Mercedes already resting on their laurels assuming that there isn’t much they can do to win? Yes they made internal changes as Paddy says, but could they have worked a little bit more on the outside, paid a little more attention to aero needs/improvements?

    We shall see as the season progresses whether their gamble or none thereof pays off.

    1. I don’t see equating Ferrari’s more apparent changes vs. Mercedes lesser superficial changes to ‘doing little’ or ‘resting’ at all. Far from it, it is Ferrari that needed to change their front suspension philosophy and many more things, to catch up. Mercedes needn’t mess with their winning formula but I have no doubt they have made many many tweaks under the skin to try to stay on top. A gamble would have been trying to fix what wasn’t broken.

    2. After making the most dominant modern F1 car, you might not want to tinker with it to much…

  20. Let’s face it Mercedes could have won the 2015 championship with the W05

      1. @jureo

        Well I’m not going to go through every race, but lets take Spain as an aero dependent track that we had dry running on, with both cars running ensuring we saw them at true pace. Their 2014 qualifying time would have been pole in 2015 and their race pace would still have been fast enough to win in 2015.

        1. Maybe, it was essentially great car. But I like to think Ferrari would be fast enough for Vettel, to score poles then and maybe even win a title…

          Still they brought in w06 ..

  21. Is it true that Mercedes have developed an engine which produces above the 900hp?

    1. I am inclined to think so. I just read a Max Yamabiko article where he talked about the last year McLaren Honda engine making 840-860 bhp. Now I know they had deployment issues so that power was not being deployed but it’s not that far fetched to imagine that the Merc was producing about 50 more hp than the Honda unit. That would make me think it was hitting 900 bhp already last year.

      But then I also think they probably did not deploy the max horsepower during the races for the most part unless they were in qualifying mode.

    2. Yes, the one they used from Monza onwards, which so happens was meant to be their used this season

    3. @phil9079 Andy Cowell has said the Mercedes engine was already producing in excess of 900hp, and he saw no reason why that cant be increased further in 2016 and beyond with improvements in efficiency.

      1. Ok I see, thnx.

  22. Gerulf Dösinger (@)
    22nd February 2016, 7:48

    Although I am not a fan of the team i got to say they – once again – built the most beautiful car on the grid. It even looks fast and kind of aggressive! The huge top intake, which even seems to be further back on the car compared to other chassis, gives it a beutiful touch.

    It almost feels as if they built it around a desired silhouette and concept drawing! Nice one!

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