'We started working on the 2020 car back in 2018'

Mercedes technical director James Allison has revealed the team has been thinking about its 2020 contender as far back as 2018, with the Silver Arrows revealing the W11 later this month.

The German works team became the first team ever to win six consecutive double championships in 2019, with Lewis Hamilton winning five of the six last drivers' titles.

While Ferrari looked the better team early in 2019, Mercedes simply didn't make the mistakes the Italians did and they actually started the year with five consecutive one-two finishes, something which had never been done before.

Mercedes finished the year with 15 wins as they wrapped up the constructors' title in Japan, and Allison revealed the team has been thinking about 2020 since way before then.

"The first thoughts went into that car at the tail end of 2018," he said on Mercedes' Twitter page.

"We hadn't even run our 2019 car. We'd only started testing bits of it in the factory around the time we were thinking what we were going to do in 2020. 

"That process is a long one but it starts very gradually, it tapers up to an enormous explosion of activity. It happens in the month before Christmas, and then in the two-three months we have in the new year ahead of winter testing, and then pushing on into Melbourne."

Lights out in Australia is fast approaching... 

But did you know work on W11 actually started all the way back in 2018! 

Catch up with James from the very heart of the factory here in Brackley  pic.twitter.com/lLfR9t4xG0

— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) January 31, 2020