Mercedes have pulled the curtain back on their new challenger, the W16, the first car in a new era without Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel.

Having revealed the car’s livery during last week’s F1 75 event in London, again opting for a silver design that blends into black, Mercedes have released images of the all-new W16 ahead of a filming day at the Bahrain International Circuit on Tuesday.

Mercedes reveal their F1 2025 car, the W16

Last season Mercedes finished fourth in the Constructors’ Championship and, although the team returned to winning ways after a bleak 2023 with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton claiming two apiece, the W15 with its narrow set-up window did not make the gains that the Brackley squad had hoped for.

This year, the fourth and final season with the current ground-effect regulations, Mercedes have designed a car that ‘builds on the learnings from its predecessor’, with ‘sizeable changes’ incorporated.

Changes have been made to the car’s aerodynamic surface while there’s a new front suspension and work has also been carried out under the skin of the W16 to remedy some of the more challenging characteristics of its predecessor.

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“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.”

Introducing the Mercedes-AMG F1 W16 🤍🖤 pic.twitter.com/Gs244BRH8R

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) February 24, 2025

This year’s championship marks the beginning of a new era for Mercedes after Hamilton left the team for Ferrari after 12 years and six World titles. Italian ‘wunderkind’ Kimi Antonelli replaces him as George Russell’s new team-mate.

But while Antonelli lines up on the grid as a rookie with Toto Wolff conceding F1 2025 is about preparing the Italian for 2026 and its all-new cars, Russell wants to fight for the World title.

“I’ve been in F1 six years now, next year is my seventh, and my fourth year with the team,” Russell told The Times. “I feel absolutely ready to take my journey to the next level and I feel ready to fight for a championship.

“I feel ready to fight against Max and if we get the opportunity, I’m not going to waste it. I feel I’ve been ready for three years.

“I was team-mates with the greatest driver of all time and if you’re ever finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton or beating him in a championship, you know that probably in 12 other seasons that would have been enough to win, or at least fight for a World Championship.”

Now it’s up to Mercedes to avoid the same traps they have fallen into the last three years, fixing one problem only to create another.

“I think it’s going to be a significant change this year, to be honest,” he told the media including PlanetF1.

“Every year we’ve uncovered a problem, we’ve solved it, and it’s created a new one, and [this year] we’ve probably been a lot more disciplined with every change that we’ve made, have been more thorough than ever in terms of the simulator running, just to ensure we’re not going to fall into a new trap. And so far, it’s a reasonable step.

“We’ve been forward thinking much more than we have done in the past, and that’s quite normal in the world of aero when you’re developing in the wind tunnel.

“But when you’re changing characteristics of the car and how it’s going to handle and how it’s going to feel for us driving it, if you make the front stronger, it’s going to take away from the rear. And if you go too far, that’s just as much as of a problem [as] if it’s in the opposite direction.

“So I think just really being thorough, saying ‘right, these are the fundamental changes we’re going to make. We think it’s going to do X. Is that going to be a problem at these races? And if so, how are we going to drive around it?’”

Russell and Antonelli will drive the W16 in a filming day on Tuesday before pre-season testing begins on the Wednesday, running for three days at the Sakhir circuit.

Mercedes has confirmed Antonelli will be behind the wheel on the opening morning before handing the car over to Russell. They’ll swap around on Thursday while Day Three’s line-up will be a repeat of Day One with Russell wrapping up the test.

The season-opening Australian Grand Prix takes place at the Albert Park on 14-16 March.

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