Mercedes completed first fire-up of its 2021 engine

The reigning world champion Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team has completed an important moment amid its pre-season preparation for the 2021 F1 season as it performed the first fire-up of its new car.

Mercedes is set to unveil its car, the Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance on March 2, two weeks before pre-season testing gets underway in Bahrain. The Brackley-based outfit is hoping to clinch its eighth consecutive drivers’ and constructors' championship in 2021.

The German manufacturer will supply three other teams with its 2021 F1 hybrid power units with Williams, Aston Martin and McLaren all set to be powered by Mercedes engines.

Speaking in an interview on Mercedes’ official YouTube channel, Mercedes Technical Director James Allison said that the cost cap, which will be introduced in 2021, has had a huge effect on the team’s approach.

“Probably the biggest weapon we could possibly have to attack these new financial regulations in a good way would be to launch with a car that is fast from the beginning, because a car that is fast from the beginning is going to be cheaper to [keep] quick during the whole season.”

“It’s a huge challenge and building the car is only part of it,” he added. We then have to operate the car, develop the car, we have to do the entire season with all the uncertainties that we face in terms of how often it might crash, or how reliable components are and then need resources spent to fix that,” he said.

Explaining the technical changes that will come into force in 2021, Allison said: “Much of our focus over the last weeks and months has been trying to understand what the effect of those changes are on the main flow fields around the car and how to try to find back the performance that is lost when you first adopt those new regulations.