Mercedes 'worked hard' to make W10 2019 F1 car kinder on its tyres

Although Mercedes made significant progress last year in improving on the 'diva' characteristics of its tricky 2017 car, the W08, the team was still not satisfied with how well its '18 challenger was able to look after its tyres.

Speaking as the W10 ran for the first time at Silverstone, technical director James Allison said Mercedes had put a lot of effort into ensuring there was a step gain in tyre management for 2019.

"The handling of the W09 was a big improvement over the rather idiosyncratic W08," said Allison.

"We managed to be competitive at tracks which had plagued us in recent years.

"However, notwithstanding this improvement, we were still not as good as some of our competitors at preserving the performance of the rear tyres.

"We have worked hard on the suspension and aerodynamic characteristics to deliver a car that will be much kinder to its tyres - enough, we hope, to allow us to be competitive at all phases of the race and at each track on the calendar."

One of the team's other areas of focus was on reducing the weight of its car, as Mercedes' long-wheelbase concept has made it difficult for it to hit the minimum weight limit in recent years.

Allison said an "aggressive" weight reduction programme had been undertaken on all areas of the car.

"Even though the minimum weight limit was lifted by 10kg for 2019, weight reduction remains a real challenge on the current generation of F1 cars," he said.

"Components that we felt were stripped to the bone in 2018 have been taken, one by one, and subjected to a further round of aggressive analysis to shave further weight from them.

"Some components surrender what feels like a giant step of half a kilo, others just a few grams, but collectively each of these victories add up to a handful of kilos that have been invested back in the car on aerodynamics, suspension and power unit to bring performance."

Mercedes' W10 retains the long wheelbase of its predecessors.