Mercedes confirm W17 launch date ahead of F1 2026 season

Mercedes will reveal renderings of its 2026 F1 challenger, the W17, on January 22 ahead of a full reveal after the pre-season test.

Teams have two tests this season given the extensive rule changes with the first coming in Barcelona between January 26-30, after which Mercedes will host a season launch event on February 2nd.

Mercedes confirm W17 launch date with two unveilings

There is a lot of anticipation surrounding Mercedes for the coming year after the underwhelming performance in the ground effect era and their previous dominance following the last major engine change.

The Brackley team, whose engines are made in the nearby Brixworth and will also power three other teams on the grid, went from dominant champions to out of title contention after regulation changes in 2022 but 2026 and its all new chassis, power unit and fuel regulations mean many are looking to see what Mercedes produce in this new era.

The first sign of that will be renders of the 2026 W17 on Thursday January 22, although the actual chassis is likely to look a lot different come the first race of the season.

The team will then head to Barcelona for a behind-closed-doors testing event before having a season launch on Monday February 2.

The season launch will feature CEO and Team Principal Toto Wolff, race drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

Teams will then head to Bahrain for a second pre-season test between February 11 and 13, this time in front of the watching world.

Mercedes is the ninth team of 11 to confirm their launch date and are currently scheduled to be their third team to release livery images. The dates we know so far are:

15 January: Red Bull and Racing Bulls
20 January: Audi
23 January: Alpine, Ferrari, Haas
8 February: Cadillac
9 February: Aston Martin

Despite predictions the team could be a challenger, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has warned there is no guarantee Mercedes will be back among the frontrunners.

“We’re looking forward to a fresh challenge,” he said. “We started these rules on the back foot, and we’ve learned a lot during them, but it’s fair to say that they haven’t suited us like the previous ones did.

“There isn’t a shred of expectation in our team that the new regulations will miraculously suit us more than the others, because they’re a bit more similar to what we had in 2020, 2021. We’re more just looking at it as a completely fresh challenge.”

Read next: Why F1 2026 changes everything in hard reset for Red Bull