The new Mercedes W12 is an upgrade of last year’s car, which dominated the season with 13 wins in 17 races. “Every year we reset our focus and define the right objectives,” he said. Hamilton extended his Mercedes contract last month by a year to the end of this season. Teams are restricted in how much development work they can do on mechanical aspects of the cars from 2020 into 2021. Changes to engines are also free and Mercedes’ power-unit boss Hywel Thomas said the team had “worked hard to take the next development step” on both performance and reliability.

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