Mercedes shares audio of 2019 F1 engine start-up

Mercedes has released an audio clip from its first successful engine fire up of its 2019 Formula 1 car. 

The reigning world champions posted a short soundbite of its V6 hybrid turbo power unit’s first start-up attached to its 2019 challenger, the W10, ahead of its launch on February 13. 

Mercedes has teased its latest F1 car appearing to feature a blue and green camouflage livery, though it is not expected to retain the design by the time the season kicks off in Australia given it would go against the German manufacturer’s ethos of running a predominantly silver car. 

Decode this… #WelcomeW10 pic.twitter.com/0jzzdOdW2x

— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) February 7, 2019

“The first fire up is an interesting event because everyone can hear it,” said technical director James Allison in a recent video shared on Mercedes’ official website. 

“You’ve had a factory that has fallen silent for a few weeks from the end of the last season to this moment where an engine leaps into life in the factory again. 

“It’s the first point where you’ve got something that comes to life. Even if you are not there you hear it around the factory, so it has a certain emotional impact on us.

“In the real world the fire up of the car is about half way through all the sub component testing work that gets you from the first bit of hardware in the factory through to being at Melbourne ready to race."

Hear us roar! The W10 lives! #WelcomeW10 pic.twitter.com/rFQTeCuWQK

— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) February 8, 2019

Mercedes is one of just two teams on the grid to field a completely unchanged driver line-up for 2019, with defending five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton joined by Valtteri Bottas for a third successive campaign. 

It is looking to continue its clean sweep of titles throughout the V6 hybrid era, a feat that would see it match Ferrari’s overall record of six constructors’ titles in a row from 1999-2004, while no team has recorded six consecutive world championship doubles before. 

“A new car actually starts a lot earlier than people think it does and the W10, our 2019 car started in the dying months of 2017,” Allison added. 

“The earliest parts of that new project are the chief designers of the power unit over in HPP and the chief designer of the chassis in Brackley  getting together to set out what their aims and goals are for the new car. 

“That is to try and figure out what the opportunities were to find performance that wasn’t possible to build into the last one. We’ve got to start thinking really early about those sorts of things.”