Valtteri Bottas, Toto Wolff, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W10, Silverstone, 2019

Mercedes confirm private launch and first run for W11

2020 F1 season

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Mercedes will present their new W11 in an event at Silverstone on February 14th but have confirmed the launch won’t be open to the media or the public.

The world champions stopped opening their launches to the media in 2019 and will hold its pre-season event behind closed doors again this year. The W11 is due to have its first run on the Silverstone International Circuit and the team plans to issue images and footage from the test.

Alpha Tauri – the team previously known as Toro Rosso – has already confirmed it will present its new car for the 2020 F1 season on the same day.

Little is known about Mercedes’ plans for the car it hopes will continue its run of consecutive championship successes. However the team is believed to have been working on a distinctively aggressive packaging arrangement for the cooling systems around its power unit. The W10 was the class of the field last year, winning 15 of the 21 races.

Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will remain at the team for the fourth year in a row and will be aiming to take the seventh consecutive championship for a Mercedes driver. The team is also looking to continue its run of six consecutive constructors titles in 2020.

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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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14 comments on “Mercedes confirm private launch and first run for W11”

  1. Mercedes will present their new W11 in an event at Silverstone on February 14th

    …Sooo, who are they pesenting it to, then?

    1. Susie Wolff?)

        1. Nah, he oversees The Red Camp… :D

          1. Nope, it’s the Bull who has the monopoly on horns :)

  2. However the team is believed to have been working on a distinctively aggressive packaging arrangement for the cooling systems

    Hope they remember last year and substantially increase its (cooling system’s) performance, if they wish it to b even more aggressive.

    1. Hope they remember last year and substantially increase its (cooling system’s) performance, if they wish it to b even more aggressive.

      Nah, these amateurs probably already forgot all about it. ;-)

      1. LOL)
        Well, of course they are not amateurs, but hopefully they didn’t decide to go even more extreme to “utterly fail in X-number of races to dominate all others”, and that their new car will be more forgiving to higher air temperatures (than last year’s).

        1. Everything is a compromise. They definitely got it right overall when you look at the margin of points in the WCC. I hate to see a situation where something like cooling is holding a team back but it’s part of the game. Can’t be the best in every single area, they chose to do what they did and overall it was a big success

  3. So how exactly are they planning to keep the media out of silverstone. I’m sure you’ll have the media in various disguises dotted around the track. And then ofcourse there’s the prospect of rival interests….

    Hopefully Ferrari will fall for that initial glipse of their agressive package, like they did the last time ;)

    1. I just had a thought, will Mercedes be checking their patrons ‘glasses’ for hidden cameras?

      Its surprising what today’s tech is now capable of?

      “…and what does that do” says the swat in his tortoise rim glasses, pinching the buttons of his jacket as if fidgeting.

  4. Feb 14. There’s time yet to join the team on the tech side, then we can attend the launch. Easy.

  5. Typical F1 teams not caring about the fans. I’m lucky enough to live pretty near Silverstone but apart from the race there’s barely a thing that happens for Joe Public to connect with the team.

    Red Bull held an event in Central Milton Keynes about 10 years ago which was good with actual cars running on the streets. But from what I can find Mercedes have done nothing similar apart from a parade of sorts back in 2014 with a static car on display.

    They may as well be based over in Stuttgart for all the effort they make to connect with the local community around Brackley.

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