Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team have confirmed their 2020 car will be revealed with a shakedown run on February 14th.
Mercedes have become the fifth team to confirm the launch date of their 2020 car. The reigning Champions will show off their W11 to the public on February 14th, Valentine’s Day – the same day that Alpha Tauri will reveal their car.
Like last year, Mercedes will be launching their car via a shakedown run at the Silverstone International Circuit in the UK. This will count as one of the two filming/promotional days that teams are permitted in a season, with a maximum distance of 100 kilometres on special tyres.
The shakedown run at Silverstone will not be open to the public or to media, with Mercedes instead releasing images afterwards through social media and press release.
The shakedown, as well as serving as their launch event and filming day, will also allow the Mercedes team to conduct initial systems checks on the W11 before preparing to ship it out to Barcelona for the start of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya on the 19th.
Last year, Mercedes launched the W10 in the same manner, and shared driving duties between Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton over the morning and afternoon respectively. It’s quite likely this will be the case again this year, as the team haven’t confirmed who will be driving the car on the 14th.
The updated list of car launch dates is thus as follows:
- Ferrari – February 11th
- Renault – February 12th
- McLaren – February 13th
- Mercedes – February 14th
- Alpha Tauri – February 14th
Check out the full list of pre-season dates for your diary here.