© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz was granted access to Mercedes’ HQ the night before the W11 made its track debut at Silverstone.
Mercedes’ Technical Director James Allison was present to give more details on the car’s development.
“It started in November, December of 2018,” said Allison.
“There would have been the chief designer looking at it, there would have been a couple of his leftenants in the concept group, their equivalents in the power unit company. So maybe five or six people.”
Allison explained how the W11’s engine and transmission were “running well before Christmas” in 2019, while in F1’s old days the car was being constructed until the last minute.
“There was a time when all this stuff would get bolted together for the first time the night before winter testing. That’s why people only tended to do 50 kilometres on [the first days of testing] back in the day.”
You can watch the full feature below.
