Mercedes confirm massive F1 deal as Lewis Hamilton to see his future | F1 | Sport

Mercedes yesterday unveiled their new Formula 1 car – and a money-spinning £60m-per-year deal with one of the world’s biggest companies. On Thursday, the team showed off images of the W16, the car they hope will carry one of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli to the title in the upcoming season.

And plastered all over it was the Microsoft logo, the fourth largest company in the world becoming the latest tech behemoth to grab a slice of F1’s ever-growing pie. Microsoft, worth £2.5trillion, is beaten only by tech rivals Nvidia, Google and Apple in terms of the size of its market cap.

Two of those three are already involved in F1, Google as a major partner of constructors’ champions McLaren and Apple as the new broadcast rights holder in the US. Microsoft CEO of commercial business Judson Althoff promised the tie-up goes far beyond a simple sponsorship and will help boost performance.

He said: “Together, we are harnessing data and turning it into real-time intelligence that powers faster decisions, smarter strategies and sustained competitive advantage both on and off the track.” Team principal Toto Wolff added: “By putting Microsoft’s technology at the centre of how we operate as a team, we will create faster insights, smarter collaboration and new ways of working as we look ahead to the next generation in F1.”

Those Microsoft logos saw daylight yesterday too as Mercedes put the W16 on track at Silverstone for a short shakedown test.
It will then head to Barcelona for the first of three blocks of pre-season testing, which begins on Monday. After watching his old team pull the covers off their car yesterday, Lewis Hamilton will today get a first glimpse of his future racing machine at Ferrari.

The Scuderia are holding their launch event at their Maranello base, immediately after which their SF-26 car will be put through its paces at their Fiorano test track. And, on a cruise liner in Barcelona, Alpine will officially unveil their new car, the A526, which completed a shakedown at Silverstone on Wednesday.

The Enstone-based outfit finished rock-bottom of the standings last year, having chosen not to develop their car at all and focus fully on their efforts for the new regulations coming into force for the upcoming campaign. Owners Renault have also formally ended their long-running power unit programme, switching instead to Mercedes engines for the first time.

Paddock rumours have long suggested Mercedes are confident they have created a powerful engine for the new era. While they and Red Bull are believed to be the only manufacturers which have exploited a loophole in the new rules which, if deemed legal by the FIA, could hand the teams using those engines a huge competitive advantage in the early rounds of the campaign.