Mercedes unveiled their 2024 car, the W15, on Wednesday before taking it for a few shakedown laps of the Silverstone circuit. Both drivers and Team Principal Toto Wolff were in attendance to witness the W15 work its way around a soaking wet track on a typically grey February day.

Fortunately, warmer climates beckon with the car next set to run at pre-season testing in Bahrain next week. There, the team will have three days to test out their 2024 concept, gather crucial aero data and start to see whether they’ve built a car capable of challenging for the title.

Sporting a black and silver livery, the W15 has kept faith with the wider sidepods that were a feature of its radical new concept that was unveiled midway through last season. But given that 2023 was a compromise with the team hampered by a tub that belonged to the previous concept, 2024 should mark a departure from those two difficult years as the team begins to build for the future.

"A big focus has been on improving the previous car’s unpredictable rear axle, which the drivers often referred to as spiteful," said Technical Director James Allison. "We have worked on that to try and create a car that is reassuring to the drivers.