This is the F1 car with which Lewis Hamilton must win his eighth championship

It would be something if Hamilton won his eighth F1 world championship at Mercedes at the last minute. Then he can leave for Ferrari with an 'I'll see' attitude and drive laps there for some change. The team hopes to be able to participate again with this almost completely new Mercedes W15.

Team boss Toto Wolff literally said about last year's car that it could be thrown in the trash. Earlier this year, the same boss said that he has a lot of confidence in the Mercedes W15. Hamilton apparently does not fully share that confidence, otherwise he would not leave. Or he is sure that he will succeed this year and that he can leave with the eighth title. That is also possible, of course.

Mercedes says it has been working on the W15 for 12 months. So they already saw at the beginning of the last season that it wasn't going to work out. The car has a completely new chassis and a new gearbox. The rear of the car should be more predictable than before. Pit stops should also be better and DRS should be more effective.

Bigger changes have been made to the floor, as technical director James Allison explains: 'In this current generation of cars, a large part of the performance comes from the interaction between the floor and the road. Whether a car is effective or not depends on how well the floor behaves aerodynamically.'

No championship after all, probably

Team boss Wolff does his best to put the past years into perspective: 'I believe that the past two years were necessary to adjust, recalibrate and reinvent ourselves in certain areas. This in-depth approach is never easy. But we have made progress and look forward to taking the next step with the W15. It won't be a linear path, but if we stumble, we will get back up and keep climbing.”

You read between the lines that there might not be a championship after all. You can also read this in Hamilton's response: 'The lessons of the past two years have helped us find our direction. It has allowed us to find our spot on the horizon. It will still be a work in progress, but we will meet the challenges that arise with our heads held high and an open mind and work on them diligently.”