Mercedes reveals their Silver Arrows, the W05

On the opening day of pre-season testing at Jerez, Mercedes revealed their 2014 challenger, the W05, to the world’s press as the new-look formula to the sport gets underway.

Mercedes hopes the W05 will earn the marque its first world championship as a works team since 1955.

Paddy Lowe, who has now taken over the role from ex-team principal Ross Brawn as executive director (technical), is satisfied with the work the Brackley-based team has done over the winter both with the development of the engine and the car.

“The whole team has done a fantastic job on the management of the project and its delivery,” said Lowe.

“We have hit our milestones and hit our targets but, as ever, we will only begin to understand how successful we have been once we begin running in anger on track.

“The new car is an elegant, but aggressive, design and, as is often the way, its beauty is much more than skin deep.

“The internal engineering of the car is extremely innovative and intelligent.

“Our team can be justifiably proud of its work so far – but none of us are under any illusions about the amount we still have to do before the first race in six weeks’ time.”

Last season’s campaign had been the team’s most successful, with three race victories and finishing second in the constructors’ championship.

Toto Wolff, who heads up the business side at Mercedes, is confident that the team can build on last year’s progress but echoed the comments of rivals such as Ferrari that reliability will be key.

“We have a busy winter testing period ahead of us and a long season where both performance and reliability will be critically important,” said Wolff.

“Lewis and Nico begin the season hungry for success and I am confident that our team will benefit thanks to the continuity of their work during the winter period.

“We have positive momentum after our second-place finish last season.

“Our clear target is to continue building up our team and we aim to deliver on every single race weekend in 2014.”

The new W05 certainly looks beautiful compared to its rivals. Hopefully the old saying that if the car looks quick, then the Mercedes will score big points and possibly the championship for either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg.