Mercedes will run a special livery on Saturday and Sunday as final call on F1 Abu Dhabi GP line-up to be taken at a later stage.
Mercedes will run a special livery during the F1 Abu Dhabi GP weekend as the team wishes to honour the commitment and determination showed by the people at Brixworth and Brackley, not just all these years but also in 2020, which was affected by COVID-19.
They are put everyone’s name on the car but interestingly, Mercedes notes, it will only be used on Saturday and Sunday. The last time, they had a special livery was during the 2019 German GP, which ended in a disaster due to the weather conditions.
Aside the livery news, Mercedes did not have anything fresh in terms of their driver line-up for the weekend, apart from Toto Wolff stating that it won’t be announced until very close to the grand prix as Lewis Hamilton awaits to finish his 10-day isolation.
He will also need a COVID-19 negative result to fly into Abu Dhabi, with a special permission. He posted a video on Tuesday for the first time since catching the virus, noting that he is feeling better and wishes to race this weekend.
It remains to be seen what Mercedes does with George Russell and Valtteri Bottas certainly clear to race. If the Brit continued with the German F1 outfit, it will mean, Williams will continue with Jack Aitken again alongside Nicholas Latifi.
“We head into the final race of the season looking for redemption after a disappointing race in Sakhir, where both George and Valtteri lost the opportunity to win,” started Mercedes f1 chief, Wolff. “The pit stop problem has uncovered an underlying problem with our intercom, and we’ve put measures in place, both technically and in the way we operate, to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“There are still some question marks over who will be in the car this weekend in Abu Dhabi. Lewis’s condition is improving, but we won’t know until closer to the time if he will be driving. We’ll do everything we can to get him in the car and we know he’s determined to be back as soon as possible.
“But his health is our main priority, so we will see what the situation is and then make the call. We have a very special surprise this weekend in Abu Dhabi for our Mercedes team members. We’ll be running a slightly different livery on Saturday and Sunday featuring everyone’s name on the car to honour the huge commitment and determination from everybody in Brixworth and Brackley.
“Everyone at Mercedes has pushed hard this year, raising the bar through this massively intense season, and we hope this gesture goes some way in showing the appreciation we have for everyone involved. Abu Dhabi is always a fun race weekend with the end of season vibe and an interesting track for the engineers to tackle. The atmosphere will be slightly different this year with the COVID-19 control measures, but we’re as motivated as ever to end the season with a strong result and head into the winter break on the right foot,” summed up Wolff.
Here’s Valtteri Bottas about George Russell
Here’s first message from Lewis Hamilton
Here’s what George Russell and Toto Wolff said after Sakhir GP