Mercedes unveils 2025 W16: official launch event highlights
Mercedes unveils 2025 Formula 1 W16 contender: ‘an exciting new era'.
Toto Wolff hailed the dawn of "an exciting new era" for Mercedes as the team revealed its 2025 Formula 1 car, the W16, on Monday.
The season marks a significant transition for Mercedes, as they enter their first year without Lewis Hamilton since 2012. The seven-time world champion elected to join Ferrari over the winter, paving the way for 18-year-old Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli to step into the vacant seat alongside George Russell, who is embarking on his fourth season with the team.
"We open an exciting new era in the story of our team and Mercedes-AMG motorsport in 2025," said team principal Wolff. "We are building on the incredible legacy of our heritage, and we can't wait to go racing.
"We have an exciting line-up to help us achieve our objectives. Both drivers have progressed through our junior programme and that is a vindication of our commitment to both supporting and developing talent."
The W16, which will take to the track for the first time during a filming day on Tuesday in Bahrain, sports the livery revealed at Formula 1's season launch event last week. Notably, the red Ineos branding is no longer visible on the airbox, although the chemical company remains a 33% shareholder in the team and continues as a main partner.
Following a mixed 2024 campaign that saw Mercedes secure four race victories but place fourth in the constructors' championship, Russell and Antonelli will be looking to drive the team back to the top.
The 2025 W16 incorporates significant changes to every aerodynamic surface and features revised front suspension aimed at addressing the shortcomings of its predecessor, the W15.
"Being the fourth year of these regulations on the chassis side, the cars are in the more mature phase," said technical director James Allison. "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.
"Our primary focus has been on dialing out the W15's slight reluctance to turn in slow corners, along with the imbalance in tire temperatures that made the car inconsistent from session to session."
Allison anticipates a fiercely competitive field this season, especially with a major overhaul of technical regulations looming in 2026.
"It will be a fiercely fought championship from the off," he added. "At this stage of the regulations, the cars are converging in terms of performance. There will be multiple winners, and it's possible that we will see even more teams than the four that scored victories last year taking to the top step of the podium."
The action kicks off this week in Bahrain with three days of testing from Feb. 26-28, leading up to the first race of the season in Australia on Mar. 16.
Up Next
Season-Defining Headlines
F1 2024: A year in pictures – the fight for supremacy among Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes
F1 TV: Watch F1 Grand Prix live throughout the season.
ESPN: Watch Formula 1 all season long across ESPN networks.