Mercedes sees no point in having a film day at Silverstone: 'It always rains'

Mercedes presented the W12, their new Formula 1 car for 2021, on Tuesday morning. When Red Bull Racing presented their new car last week, they drove it on the Silverstone circuit one day later. Toto Wolff explains at the presentation why they will not do that.

Many teams make use of the so-called film day to drive the first metres with their new car. A test day during which the new car can be driven with a lot of restrictions. Mercedes however doesn't see the point of organising this test day right now. Therefore they will drive the W12 for the first time during the official winter test in Bahrain.

Mercedes doesn't like the rain

"It always rains at Silverstone, so we decided that we don't want to be in the cold and rain for this," Wolff said, laughing, during the presentation of the new car. Instead, the team chooses to insert a film day between the test days and the first race in Bahrain.

According to Wolff, not only is the weather nice then, but they also get much more out of that time on the track, because it gives a more representative view than a wet track at Silverstone. The Mercedes filming day will therefore take place on Tuesday 16 March.