Mercedes launch their 2016 car; the W07

Mercedes has officially unveiled its 2016 Formula 1 car the W07 this morning, with an clear aim for “optimisation absolutely everywhere”.

The F1 W07 Hybrid hit the track for the first time on Friday, with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton clocking up just under 100 kilometres between them at Silverstone as part of a promotional event.

Despite Mercedes winning the last two constructors’ championships, and with Hamilton collecting the drivers’ titles the past two years, Mercedes’ aim is still for perfection according to technical executive director Paddy Lowe. In his interview with the media this morning, Lowe stated the following about the launch of the W07 as follows:-

'After a highly successful season all round in 2015, our priority has been to identify the areas in which we were weakest and to try to improve on those. Our objective is excellence in all areas and, while we had some fantastic results last year, there are many areas in which we can still be much better.

'That’s the kind of culture we try to instil throughout the whole organisation – one of constantly striving to reach something better. We had a number of races that didn’t go to plan in 2015 – Singapore in particular – so there were a lot of things that needed improving for 2016. We are seeking optimisation absolutely everywhere.'

My first thought from looking at the W07 is that they have tweaked a few areas and nothing much has changed really on the car. Despite that, the car still looks good and appears to look like a step forward.

Overall, it is clear from what Lowe has stated that Mercedes are hoping that the W07 continues where the W06 left off and they believe that they still have scope to improve despite them winning in dominant form last season. But as he rightly points out, any team would love to improve all the time; that is the nature of Formula One and Mercedes are no exception.

With clear targets such as Singapore that they would like to improve on, all Mercedes can do before the start of the season is continue where they left off last season, build up the mileage in testing and then see where the land lies after the pre-season testing period. But you have to say that they are the firm favourites heading into the season and anyone would be stupid to discredit them from retaining both championships this season.

The car will be put through its paces on Monday for the first day of testing at Barcelona’s Catalunya circuit, with Hamilton at the wheel. Keep your eyes peeled at Driving for Pleasure with our reports on the first pre-season test this week.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa