Tuesday 7 January 2014

No early launch for Mercedes

(Ben Johnston 2014)

The Mercedes AMG Grand Prix team have confirmed this afternoon that they will not host a formal launch of their new car before the first preseason test.

The team have announced that they will take the wraps off their new 2014 car on the morning of the first winter test that takes place exactly three weeks from today on Tuesday 28th January at the Jerez circuit.

The Brackley based squad are one of the only Formula One teams to retain the same driving pairing as last season and as Lewis Hamilton starts his second season with the Silver Arrows while Nico Rosberg is into his fifth season with the team. The 2013 season was Mercedes most successful year since their return to the sport as a full 'works' team as they finished in 2nd in the Constructors championship.

The team will be hoping to go one position better this season and win the championship. Mercedes have one of the largest budgets on the grid and they have the resources and personnel to enable them to at challenge for the championship this year.

The Brackley squad are the second to team to announce their plans in as many days as the Lotus F1 Team confirmed yesterday that they will miss the first test in Jerez and will instead run the E22 at the second test in Bahrain.

I anticipate that over the coming days will hear from more teams as to what their plans are for presenting their new cars. For example, McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed that their new car will be revealed with plenty of fan fair. They will launch their new car, the MP4-29 just before the start of preseason testing.

It is going to be a big season for the team as they will have a new driver in Kevin Magnussen, they will also announce a new title sponsor and indeed they are apparently going to revert back to their orange livery.

So it is going to be an extremely interesting season for the Woking based squad.


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