Mercedes releases renders of W11 F1 car

Mercedes has published official renders of its 2020 car, the W11, before it makes its on-track debut later today. 

At an event in London earlier this week, the Silver Arrows showcased its livery for the year ahead, which keeps in theme with the colours it has used since its return as a works team in 2010.

At first glance, the new car does not seem to differ much from its predecessor, but there are still some major changes.

In addition to further development of the bargeboards and deflectors for the sidepods, the sidepods themselves have been tackled considerably. 

The openings are considerably smaller than in previous seasons and in terms of the shape of the openings, Mercedes seems to follow the line of Red Bull a little more. Furthermore, the Mercedes car appears to be even slimmer than the W10.

Valtteri Bottas will be the first to get behind the wheel of the new car, before teammate Lewis Hamilton climbs in for a handful of laps.

Red Bull ran a similar shakedown of their car at Silverstone earlier this week ahead of pre-season testing, which begins on Wednesday, February 19th.

Mercedes enters the year as reigning world champions and is yet to be defeated in the turbo-hybrid era, taking all drivers' and constructors' championship since 2014.

Should Hamilton win the drivers' title in 2020, he will take his seventh and match Michael Schumacher for the most championships won by a driver throughout their career.