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Up and down the Barcelona paddock, the buzzword is "evolution". With the exception of Sauber, all the 2016 cars have now been revealed, including - on Monday - the Manor, Renault and all-blue Toro Rosso.
It is even being said that Mercedes' title-winning car is obviously very similar to its predecessor. "It feels very much like last year's car," said Lewis Hamilton as he began testing on Monday. "There are a few bits here and there but generally it's the same," he told Britain's Sky.
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But team boss Toto Wolff said more and more "innovations" will be brought to the new silver racer throughout the eight days of testing. "Even those that can be seen from the outside," promised designer Aldo Costa. "We have taken almost nothing from the old car," he told Auto Motor und Sport, "as the stability in the regulations forces you to explore the limit in every area."
Indeed, the German team reportedly plans to squeeze 12 days' worth of testing into the 8 available days, meaning up to 800 kilometres per day for the W07. So if it proves too much for Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg, "then we can put Pascal Wehrlein or Esteban Ocon in the car," Wolff revealed. Another new car seeing the light of day on Monday was the Force India, which is an evolution of the 'B' machine launched mid last season.
But Nico Hulkenberg insisted: "The car is different from last year: if you look carefully, you can see the difference. As I've said, today we are not showing everything -- the differences will become more obvious in the future," he added. (GMM)
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