Mercedes shake down W05 at Silverstone

2014 F1 season

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Mercedes have run their 2014 F1 car for the first time at Silverstone today.

Nico Rosberg put the first laps on the W05, which is powered by Mercedes’ PU106A V6 turbo hybrid engine.

Rosberg took the car out on track for the first time shortly after 2pm and completed 40 kilometres of running before the test concluded at 4:30pm.

“Such a great feeling,” Rosberg wrote on Twitter. “Just drove my new silver arrow for the first time. It looks quick, but I don’t know if it is quick yet!”

Mercedes are yet to publicly reveal the car, which is set to be shown for the first time on the opening day of the Jerez test on Tuesday.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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39 comments on “Mercedes shake down W05 at Silverstone”

  1. Mercedes’ PU106A V6 turbo hybrid

    They couldn’t make the shorter could they?

    For the rest it is good to see they have gotten the shakedown done and over with before Jerez.

    1. LOL.

      What a name. They could call it Castro.

    2. Their way to have more coverage … They have calculated that if their car is named twice less than Ferrari, they will still got more TV time.

  2. Is this legal?

    1. I has been before at least and don’t see why that would have changed. Teams can do 100 km so called press runs. Mercedes have done it before in Silverstone and Lotus did the same at Jerez one day before first tests with Kimi in 2012.

    2. @noob Teams can have two private testing days this year, for filming purposes. I think they can do up to 100km.

    3. @noob – Perfectly. Teams like to put a chassis through its paces before the start of winter testing, to make sure everything is working so as to save time at the tests and to make sure there are no critical issues. They are limited in how much running they can do, and with the emphasis on system checks, there is no possibility of carrying out test work.

  3. Regardin’ the reliability concerns I wonder how they did it? 40km wow! Nothin’ exploded? Wow

  4. I thought the testing was restricted YET AGAIN Mercedes doing another One.

    1. Shakedowns are perfectly legal, Torro Rosso and Force India have already done theirs too.

      We need a video now!

    2. Any team can do up to 100km of ‘promo running’ per year. They have to use demonstration tyres.

    3. Go home.

      Shakedowns have always been legal.

      1. A shakedown isn’t a test, it’s a umm err, well it’s something different, right?

        1. In a shakedown, they start the car for the first time and drive it around to make sure everything is functional.

        2. I presume that you are being flippant for the sake of raising a laugh – the regulations state that teams are permitted up to 100km of restricted speed testing for system checks (checking electronic systems, gearbox and engine functions and so forth).
          Given that Toro Rosso and Force India have also carried out similar runs today and the fact that teams have been carrying out such runs for several years – in fact, Force India and Toro Rosso actually held their launch presentations at the track during their shakedown runs last year – the only surprise is that most nobody seems to realise that it is standard practise.

  5. … And not a single picture of it? Arf :)

    1. Exaclty,.

    2. On their website they posted a video having a picture of the track with engine notes in the background, until right at the end a car zips through the view (making it hard to see much of it) @spoutnik, justinf1, I will have a look to see if I can find it again later

  6. JP (@jonathanproc)
    24th January 2014, 19:18

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkMh_PCfWTo

    Sounds good. Nothing can really be made out of the car though, but that’s to be expected.

    1. I already like the new sound better.

      1. I like it too! Check out this sound comparison I made.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W5RzhLyK2E

    2. It sounds awful, I hear better from the boy racers who drive past on the main road near where I live every night.

      I hope for everyones sake that it was running low revs in a gentle mode for the shakedown because otherwise people are gonna have to admit that Bernie was right and that would be a real tragedy.

      1. On what basis exactly does this sound horrible to you?

        If the volume does not satisfy just turn the knob clockwise it will solve the problem. It’s a beautiful, lower pitch sound and it will be loud.

        This is how race cars are supposed to sound!

        1. Read my post, I told you exactly on what basis. Sounds like a Civic with a fart can.

          1. Sounds like a Civic with a fart can.

            it sounds nothing like a civic, or any other road car.
            I think it sounds brilliant, very similar to the f1 turbo’s of the 1980’s & nobody complained about how they sounded.

            looking very forward to hearing these engines going round the race tracks of the world :)

          2. it sounds nothing like a civic with a fart can, it sounds like a real racing car. did you write the comment before pressing play? id buy a civic with a fart can if it sounded this good!

      2. Wow, the boy racers where you live must drive some pretty good cars.

    3. Having paused it with the car in the middle, it appears to be a sharp drop at the front of the nose, like the FI, as apposed to the gradual slope of the McL and others.

      1. But that really is clutching at straws!!!

        1. @jleigh

          It is! I can hardly see anything even at 1080p paused with all that motion blur! Colour scheme seems to be approximately the same as last year though.

      2. i heard “neoooowwwww” (not as bad as i thought, but i will miss the V8) and saw nothing but smmmmmmuuuuuuuuuudddddggggggggeeeee

  7. How do they manage such a test without anyone snapping a spy shot?

  8. As above Shakedowns are perfectly normal. They are just to check everything works together before proper testing. To make sure the sensors work as well. No point going all the way to Jerez to find it categorically fails or something needs a tweak that would write off the whole weekend but can be fixed quickly.

    1. @timpey, you could say the same about airflow over a new front wing. Would that also be legal? If so I seem to have misunderstood the “Testing Ban”

      1. Firstly, the teams are speed restricted during those tests – the maximum speed is, IIRC, 100km/h (i.e. they usually drive around with the pit lane speed limiter on), which is of limited use for aero correlation work. On top of that, most shakedown tests take place at short circuits – aero correlation runs normally take place at constant speed in a straight line, as it is much more difficult to interpret the data if the cars are yawing and pitching throughout the run.
        Secondly, the FIA sends a representative to ensure that the teams cannot fit equipment that could be used for other purposes – you cannot hide the pitot tube arrays or flo-viz paint that teams would normally use for aero correlation runs that easily.

        1. Thanks Anon, nice to hear from someone who seems to know the facts rather than someone who just has an opinion.

          PS. I am often guilty of being in the second category.

  9. I like the new sound,

    Despite all the doom & gloom of the nay-sayers, new V6 Turbo’s still sound like a proper race engine.

    All the vacuum cleaner joked should now be put to bed for good.

  10. So is it a boy, a girl or a domestic appliance?

Comments are closed.