Valtteri Bottas: The W11 is "the weapon that we are going to be using this year"
F1 News
Mercedes have revealed their W11 and will hope that it is fast enough to continue the team's domination of the sport. Valtteri Bottas will be the first driver to take to the track a bit later on today and the Finn is looking forward to getting in his new car for the first time.
"I am excited!" Bottas said on the Mercedes launch. "Getting back to driving a Formula 1 car and driving this new car and seeing how it handles and how the engine feels is exciting because this is going to be the weapon that we are going to be using this year.
"It takes some time to get used to a new car. The shakedown is more about debugging things and seeing how things actually run. The real work with the car will start next week."
As it is only a shakedown, the team is limited to how much running they can do today, however, Bottas believes they will be able to tell if they have a fast car or not.
"First we will have an instal lap to see if everything works. The engineers will check all the data and systems and I'll give my initial feedback. Then we will do a few short runs just to try and get a bit of a feel of the car."
Bottas is set to take to the track at 11:00 and Lewis Hamilton will get a turn later on in the day.