A day after revealing the W16 to the world in a handful of renderings, Mercedes’ F1 2025 car has broken cover with its first laps of the Bahrain International Circuit.

Mercedes officially introduced the W16 on Monday, taking the covers off the new car in a moment that signalled the beginning of a new era for the team following Lewis Hamilton’s high-profile move to Ferrari.

The Mercedes W16 in action in Bahrain

This season George Russell and teenage wunderkind Kimi Antonelli have been entrusted with the W16, leading Mercedes’ charge with Toto Wolff laying out the target: “Challenging for victories more consistently.”

“We have made gains in the off-season,” he bullishly added, “but we will only know where we stand come the first race in Australia.”

Russell put the first laps on the W16, taking to the Bahrain circuit on Tuesday morning, just 24 hours ahead of pre-season testing.

First up in the W16: That’s George 🙌 pic.twitter.com/RGfbYY0TI1

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) February 25, 2025

Russell and Antonelli will run a designated programme on Tuesday to check all of the systems on the car whilst acclimatizing themselves to their new machine.

💥🚨 || The W16 on the track for the first time… 🔛

– Russell is the first behind the wheel. pic.twitter.com/T90HwNshrQ

— Mercedes-AMG Passion Club (@MercedesAMGPCF1) February 25, 2025

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With a focus on correcting last year’s W15’s wayward behaviour in turns, the new car features a revised nosed, changed to the front wing, redesigned floor and rear suspension as well as a new-look shark fin engine cover.

“Being the fourth year of these regulations on the chassis side, the cars are in the more mature phase. Big gains in lap time are harder to come by but we’ve been concentrating on making improvements in the areas that held us back last year,” explained Technical Director, James Allison.

“Our primary focus has been on dialling out the W15’s slight reluctance to turn in slow corners, along with the imbalance in tyre temperatures that made the car inconsistent from session to session.

“We are pleased with our progress over the winter and we’re looking forward to finding out where we stack up against everyone else.”

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