The car which Mercedes hope will allow them to defend their constructors’ championship and which Lewis Hamilton will use to seek a third drivers’ title has broken cover.
Mercedes has revealed the first video footage of its new car, the W06, running at Silverstone today.
The team conducting a filming day with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton driving the new car ahead of the first test which begins at Jerez on Sunday. The car covered 18 laps but inclement weather prevented further running.
2015 F1 season
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- The Complete F1 Fanatic 2015 season review
Sam Andrew
29th January 2015, 15:28
Shame the nose looks less attractive than last year
Craig
29th January 2015, 16:44
The noses look even more likely to ramp another car into the driver’s face.
Lauri (@f1lauri)
30th January 2015, 2:07
Let’s hope it doesn’t happen… But must agree!
Attila The Hun (@bosshunterman)
29th January 2015, 17:37
You are putting it as if it was Mercedes’ fault…..
Michael C
29th January 2015, 19:21
The nose looks great! Best looking F1 car (from the front) since 2008.
utsav (@utsav911)
29th January 2015, 19:44
I would say exactly opposite to that.
JCost (@jcost)
30th January 2015, 5:46
Yes, front view is great.
McLarow
1st March 2015, 16:33
I agree
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
29th January 2015, 19:57
I prefer this year’s nose. However, I prefer last year’s livery.
Miguel Sampaio (@gordess)
30th January 2015, 11:42
Last year’s livery? I would say it’s practically the same… http://img.motorpasionf1.com/galleries/mercedes-w05/MercedesW05_4.jpg
joe jopling (@jop452)
29th January 2015, 19:59
I think the nose of the car looks quite good……but I seem to remember from the first test to the first race last year, quite a few teams altered the front wing design…..so lets judge then
Sun Siyuan (@peking901)
30th January 2015, 0:15
I think it is much better than last year.
Boomeranga
30th January 2015, 7:10
Shame the others are not well prepared as Mercedes!
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
29th January 2015, 15:31
Man, she is one sexy looking beast!
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
29th January 2015, 15:34
The rear looks weird, even on their next video.
http://i.imgur.com/yb0voLa.png
LukeS
29th January 2015, 15:36
I’m Guessing not all the rear body work is on.
mateuss (@mateuss)
29th January 2015, 15:36
Looks good and quite interesting around the back. Nose looks conventional, but quite thin. But the potato might be deceiving us.
Joe
29th January 2015, 15:51
potato – lol
ADD (@addimaf1)
29th January 2015, 15:42
Does that look like chrome to anyone, I cant tell. But since the reports of McLaren changing there livery was wrong the rumour about Mercedes chrome may also just be a rumour.
Retired (@jeff1s)
29th January 2015, 15:55
Three ‘silver teams’ out of nine. How is that possible?
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
29th January 2015, 18:22
Could be more than that. Maybe the Sauber is silver with a thin blue stripe round the cockpit. And we haven’t seen the Ferrari yet…
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
29th January 2015, 15:59
@addimaf1 Lots of talk about neither team actually running their final liveries…
Avis
29th January 2015, 15:44
Compare With FW37,E30,MP4-30
The Mercedes W06 looks much better than that
Hopefully this year the stability can be improve
Blackmamba (@blackmamba)
30th January 2015, 2:26
Quite right. Best looking car so far!
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
29th January 2015, 15:45
Looks great.
Peter Barnett (@fiat125s)
29th January 2015, 15:46
I heard that the 2015 car was going to be a chrome colour all over. That looked like last year’s colours.
bezza695 (@bezza695)
29th January 2015, 15:48
I never went to any of the races last year, but did the engine sound exactly like that in person if so, why oh why was everyone complaining, I think that sounds amazing and that’s only one of the 18 or 20 cars
RogerA
29th January 2015, 16:26
The sound is similar but it seems louder than last year-
https://amp.twimg.com/v/c951ae9a-02f7-4e1b-b1dd-8e96d6c7e3ae
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
29th January 2015, 16:40
Got the same feeling. It seems louder this year.
Nase (@)
29th January 2015, 17:45
Or that may just be due to less incompetent sound production applied to the footage. The first, non-FOM, sound samples of 2014 all sounded reasonably good, but as soon as the cars hit the track in official sessions, they started sounding somewhat less impressive. There’s a sect of tinfoil hat wearers (including me) that doesn’t want to rule out the possibility that this might somehow be related to Bernie Ecclestone’s extremely vocal criticism of the new engine regulations that were mostly decided while ignoring what he had to say (or rather: pester) about it.
Could a man as powerful as he is resort to sabotage to promote his own agenda? Let’s just say that I’ve excluded theories that seemed far less likely, but then slammed into my face.
PeterG
29th January 2015, 18:42
@nase I think the issue with the sound on TV last year was more the individual broadcasters than FOM as the audio on the raw satellite feed’s coming straght from FOM which I got to hear a few times last year was fine.
There was also big differences between broadcasters, The track audio on Sky was louder than it was on the BBC for instance & the audio on Fox in the US was way quieter than most others which I got to hear.
Its also noticeable looking at the in-car camera shots. On the main broadcast on all networks the in-car audio was fairly quiet, But on the in-car camera feeds coming straght from FOM the cars sounded way louder.
The broadcasters tend to play around with the audio mix to get there commentary audio levels as they want & to downmix the 5.1 audio to stereo if that broadcaster isn’t outputting in 5.1 & all that will affect the audio levels we end up hearing.
Something else to take into consideration with fan videos & stuff is that the microphones on a lot of these devices (Smart phones, tablets & digital image cameras) tend to be lower quality so will distort the sound & that will often make it sound louder than it actually is.
Nase (@)
30th January 2015, 11:16
@PeterG:
What you say makes an awful lot of sense, but the thing is: I like my tinfoil hat.
Hedley Thorne
4th February 2015, 19:49
Mercedes have resorted to a traditional exhaust for the W06. From early testing last year they had a “sausage” style exhaust which muted the sound of the firings. They have ditched it this year releasing more sound straight into the turbine.
William Stuart (@williamstuart)
29th January 2015, 16:43
I think the main complaint was the volume not quality of the noise. I think the car does sound a bit different, maybe a higher pitch somehow? If the engines are more powerful, does it mean they’re necessarily louder?
Mashiat
29th January 2015, 17:21
@williamstuart No, a more powerful engine doesn’t necessarily mean a louder engine. You get V8s that are more powerful than V12s, but still make less sound. The F1 cars of the V8 era were less powerful than the V6s (with ERS), but obviously much noisier.
William Stuart (@williamstuart)
29th January 2015, 20:01
ERS doesn’t contribute to volume though, only the ICE. I’d definitely prefer the engines to be able to reach 15,000 RPM, I think this would be a good compromise between having more comfortable (to listen to trackside) quieter engines and the louder previous generations.
Maybe even if it’s only in qualifying trim.
Polo (@polo)
29th January 2015, 18:08
The main causes of the engines being quieter last season were the turbochargers and lower RPM. Turbochargers use exhaust gases to boost engine power, instead of just letting the exhaust gases exit like on a naturally-aspirated engine. This significantly reduces exhaust noise.
Also, while the V8s often revved up to 18,000 RPM, the V6s were limited to only 15,000 RPM. In fact, they didn’t even reach this limit, generally only revving up to 12,000 RPM maximum (mainly due to the fuel flow rate limits, and I believe to a lesser extent also in order to aid reliability). This will have also contributed to a quieter engine sound.
William Stuart (@williamstuart)
29th January 2015, 19:57
Do you think it’s possible for Mercedes to have increased the RPM from around 12,000 to higher? Or was it baked into the new regulations?
Polo (@polo)
29th January 2015, 17:16
I went to Silverstone last year, and the cars sounded much better than they did on TV – they were still quite loud to be honest (certainly not ear-splitting anymore though). They did sound quite similar to the sound in that video, although as RogerA pointed out the new sound seems a bit louder – however that’s difficult to tell from some mediocre-quality phone footage.
What seems more discernible is that the engine is perhaps a slightly higher pitch – maybe they are going to be running higher revs this year? Last year the engines generally ran at only 12,000 rpm despite the limit being 15,000 rpm – maybe this year they will run closer to that limit.
Although, with the engine limit being cut down to only 4 per season, I’m not so sure. It does seem possible though, particularly as the teams may have made some big strides in terms of reliability for this season.
Polo (@polo)
29th January 2015, 17:38
Also, in regards to my experience at Silverstone last year I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. In previous years I would wear some form of ear protection for most of the race to reduce the risk of damaging my hearing. In 2014, although the sound was quieter than in previous years, it meant that I didn’t have to wear any ear protection, so in a weird way they were effectively louder!
The quieter cars meant the atmosphere was quite different to when I have been in previous years (maybe not quite as adrenaline-pumping), but you can still hear them from a while away, and it was quite nice to be able to actually hear if someone tries to talk to you! Plus you can hear a range of sounds such as tyres squealing during a lock-up that you wouldn’t have been able to hear in previous years. The turbo noises are pretty sweet as well, particularly while braking/downshifting.
It did seem quite odd to have GP2 and GP3 cars being louder than the F1 cars, but I think it’s kind of cool: the GP2/3 cars still produce the old V8 scream, and because their races are only an hour or two before the F1 race, you can still experience the old V8 noise on the day if you really miss it, while still being able to watch the F1 race without having to wear earplugs for 1 and a half hours.
SteveR
29th January 2015, 22:17
The fuel flow rate is constant after 12,000 revs, so there really is no reason to run much above that RPM. Now if they would only let the cars use more fuel………………
Jon (@johns23)
30th January 2015, 1:21
To me the sound is very similar, maybe a tad louder., if that. But ill hold judgement until im at the Melbourne GP. I personally love the new Mercedes, just enought updates but not too much. It just looks fast
safeeuropeanhome (@debaser91)
29th January 2015, 16:27
I live not far from Silverstone and its been snowing today. Wonder how the W06 might handle in the snow and ice!
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
29th January 2015, 16:33
Is Nico using Lewis helmet on the second photo? Hahaha
toiago (@toiago)
29th January 2015, 16:35
He wanted to know what it feels like inside a champion’s helmet :)
Supremacy (@supremacy)
30th January 2015, 12:58
:D
ADD (@addimaf1)
29th January 2015, 16:36
Both drivers are there
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
29th January 2015, 16:40
Saw it now.
Woody (@woodyd91)
29th January 2015, 16:35
You say Nico Rosberg is driving yet some of those pictures have hamilton in the car, or rather Hamilton’s helmet in the car. The only other person I can think is that young reserve driver they signed (forget his name) He has a helmet similar to Hamiltons.
ADD (@addimaf1)
29th January 2015, 16:36
Hamilton is also there, he was in a video on twitter.
sato113 (@sato113)
29th January 2015, 18:09
Article is wrong in this respect
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th January 2015, 19:41
@woodyd91 To be clear, the article was updated several times as Mercedes were very slowly putting out information about what they were doing.
@sato113 In its previous draft the article said Rosberg drove the car first, which is true, and did not say Hamilton hadn’t driven it.
Jürgen (@jurgen)
29th January 2015, 16:42
That looks exactly like the #W05 car
The Abbinator (@abbinator)
31st January 2015, 6:14
Exactly (but not). The nose is different, the livery has changed… Not yo be picky, but really exactly not the same. ;)
park
29th January 2015, 16:42
Nose is similar to Williams’s one
park
29th January 2015, 18:25
No. Now it’s clear.
Williams has had the ugliest nose so far,I still hope their aero concept will pay off
Duc Pham (@ducpham2708)
29th January 2015, 16:47
Wait I thought that teams cannot test their new cars on track without the approval from the FiA. The cars would have to be at least 2 years old to be tested freely.
I remember Vettel had to drive a F2012 when I arrived at Ferrari. Ferrari’s 2013 and 2014 models are not allowed to run even in their own Fiorano Track.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th January 2015, 22:20
@ducpham2708 A test of this type is permitted as a Promotional Event as per the definition here:
FIA overhauls testing rules after Mercedes row
Daniel (@)
29th January 2015, 17:32
The sound of the car is pretty fantastic, in my opinion.
CountryGent (@countrygent)
29th January 2015, 17:46
I spy with my little eye…a thoroughly good-looking Formula 1 car…
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
29th January 2015, 18:05
Wow, now with these new pictures, amazing car!
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
29th January 2015, 18:19
Looks great from the front, reminds me of a Renault 3.5, or F1 nearly 10 years ago.
Those cameras spoil the lines though! Almost as bad as the rabbit’s ears once used by the same team in a previous incarnation.
Skett (@skett)
29th January 2015, 18:51
Are those cameras even legal? I thought they all had to run standard camera mounts this year
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
29th January 2015, 18:32
How? How? HOW?
How has, amidst all the silly regulations and Williams noses, the chaps over in Brackley actually come up with a better-lloking car than last year?
HOW?