The Mercedes AMG, today, unveiled the W05, its 2014 challenger, at the Circuito de Jerez in southern Spain. Ahead of the first morning of official winter testing, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton took the wraps off the first all-new Silver Arrow to hit the track since 1954. Designed from the ground up as an integrated project between the Mercedes-Benz teams based at Brackley and Brixworth, this new car marks an historic milestone in a landmark year when Mercedes-Benz celebrates 120 years of Motorsport and the 80th anniversary of the Silver Arrows.
The F1 W05 is the most complex Formula One car ever produced by the team at Brackley powered by the PU106A Hybrid Power Unit, the most complex power unit developed in the history of Brixworth. The Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) at the heart of the new Power Unit has been down-sized to a 1.6 litre V6 configuration and down-speeded to a maximum of 15,000 rpm. To achieve high power delivery and therefore efficiency from the ICE, a pressure charging system has been introduced, in the form of a single stage turbocharger and compressor. The new Hybrid Energy Recovery System (ERS), which incorporates electric motors capable of recovering both kinetic and waste heat energy, presented a ten-fold greater challenge than its predecessor, KERS, which was pioneered by Mercedes-Benz in 2009. This advanced Hybrid system is integral to car performance and marks a significant step forward in both system performance and durability. Each driver is permitted to use just five Power Units per season without penalty.
For the new season, Merecedes AMG is the only top team on the grid with the advantage of continuity in its driver line-up. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have spent the short winter break preparing for the year´s new challenges, working closely with their respective engineering teams and conducting intensive training programmes. For 2014, they will carry new race numbers, 44 for Lewis, 6 for Nico, that will stay with them for their racing careers.
"It has been exciting to see the car come together and to see - and hear - it run for the first time last Friday in Silverstone," commented Lewis Hamilton. "It looks just fantastic, so aggressive but full of really nice details as well. I am excited to find out how the new Power Unit feels to drive, to hear how it sounds from the cockpit and to compare the job we have done relative to the competition. I think this is probably the season with the most unknowns that I have faced in my career and that´s just so exciting for all of us."
"This is my second season with Mercedes and it now feels like I am a fully-fledged member of the team and that we are nurturing the great relationship we built last year. But it is still going to be a big learning year for all of us. There is so much new technology on these cars and so much information to take in and filter out to get down to what really matters, it´s going to be a big challenge with changes to driving style and race strategies, too."
"It has probably been the shortest winter I have ever had out of the car. I spent Christmas and New Year training in the mountains and I even put a turbo on my snowmobile, so that I could get used to the feel of a vehicle delivering power in that way, which was pretty awesome. And I´m excited to see the number 44 on my car again. It´s the number I had when I started racing go-karts - the number plate on my Dad´s car had a 44 on it, which is where it came from - and I won my first British championship with it, so it has been the family number ever since. Fingers crossed it will bring us luck as it did back then."
Nico Rosberg will enter his fifth season as a Silver Arrows driver at the wheel of car number six.
"I am massively excited ahead of getting in the car properly, after our short shakedown at Silverstone last Friday. It´s been a really intense period and I am just so looking forward to driving the car. This year will be much more complex with all the new technologies and I think it´s great; it will help make the sport really contemporary. It´s all focused on being more fuel efficient and using Hybrid energy, which for me is a good route and something that will make the racing even more interesting."
"After finishing the Pirelli test last December in Bahrain, it´s only been a month away from the car for me and that´s a positive because it means I will be up and running straight away. We have three tests coming up and, as always, the track time will be very limited. So it´s going to be a massive mission to get ready and reliable. I think we are on track but it´s going to be so difficult for all the teams and I just feel lucky because I have such a great team behind me. I am confident we can get the job done."
"I have completely changed my helmet design for the new season and, of course, I will have the number six on the nose of the car. My Dad wrote me an email in the winter saying it had been a lucky number for him when he became world champion, but that didn´t convince me. Then my fiancée said it was her lucky number, too, so that got me thinking a bit more! And then I remembered that I won a championship with this number back in 2002. Hopefully that will be the key to an easy season!"
