The new car, which Mercedes say features a number of 'mini revolutions' over its predecessor, underwent a shakedown test at the UK's Silverstone circuit on Friday.

It will make its official track debut on Monday at the start of pre-season testing in Barcelona, Spain, with reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton and team mate Nico Rosberg sharing driving duties over the four-day session.

“After a highly successful season all round in 2015, our priority has been to identify the areas in which we were weakest and to try to improve on those,” said Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe of the F1 W07.

“Our objective is excellence in all areas and, while we had some fantastic results last year, there are many areas in which we can still be much better. We had a number of races that didn't go to plan in 2015 - Singapore in particular - so there were a lot of things that needed improving for 2016. We are seeking optimisation absolutely everywhere.”

Despite the F1 regulations remaining largely unchanged for 2016, and Mercedes’ already high level of performance last year - they won all bar three races - Lowe insists the team have still found many areas of potential performance gain.

“We aim to make minor revolutions wherever we can - even within a small context,” he added. “So, while the car may look very similar to its predecessor from the outside - as is inherent within stable regulations - underneath there are quite a lot of mini revolutions that make up an overall evolution for the new season.”