Mercedes fires up its 2017 engine for the first time

Mercedes F1 Team fired up the heart of its 2017 car last Wednesday which confirms the team which has dominated the pinnacle of the motorsport for the last three years is on schedule with the assembly of its new machinery.

Mercedes announced earlier that it will introduce its new car, the W08 on 23th February in Silverstone. The shake-down of it will happen after the presentation on the GP track.
The Anglo-German squad fired up its V6turbocharged engine on Wednesday. That happened in the presence of a few Mercedes-engineers.

The team recorded the important moment in the form of a video which was uploaded on the internet. The footage provides a limited view of the assembly. Still, it emerged that the engineers modified the exhaust system of the power unit. The wastegate-pipes which release unnecessary exhaust gases from the system will be mounted in a different way compared to the 2016 configuration.

Previously, they were directly under the main exhaust pipe. For 2017, they will be mounted higher, and further apart from each other. In essence, it's an implementation the micky mouse exhaust layout, as it was dubbed last year. Still, it remains to be seen if this will eventually be the layout on the racing car once the team arrives at Melbourne for the first race of the season.