The new car that George Russell and Kimi Antonelli will race next season will already hit the track today at Silverstone for its first shakedown, Mercedes confirmed to GPblog.

For now, three teams other than Mercedes have already had an initial taste of the track ahead of the closed-door Barcelona tests, which are set to take place next week.

Audi led the way, running at Barcelona even before its official presentation. The same applies to Cadillac and Alpine, both of which were spotted on track at Silverstone. Racing Bulls, meanwhile, completed a two-day run at Imola following its joint launch with Red Bull in Detroit on 15 January.

McLaren, on the other side, will take a different approach, opting to use the opening day of running at Montmeló as its shakedown in order to push development as far as possible.

The Austrian has so far been the only figure to comment on the new W17, whose livery remains broadly similar to last year’s but features a number of subtle changes — including the addition of the Microsoft logo on the engine cover following the recent announcement, as well as black stripes across the upper section of the sidepods.

“Releasing the first images of the W17 is simply the next step in that process. It represents the collective, sustained effort of our teams in Brixworth and Brackley. We will continue to push hard in the months ahead,” he said.