Mercedes W17 Unveiled With Active Aero for F1 2026
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS debuts a downsized hybrid W17 with refreshed black-and-silver livery and bold new Microsoft partnership.
Summary
- Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS has revealed its W17 challenger for Formula 1’s 2026 rules reset, introducing a smaller, lighter car built around active aerodynamics and a 50/50 hybrid power split
- The W17 debuts an evolved black-and-silver livery with a bold Petronas green flow line and new Microsoft branding, as Mercedes signs a major multi-year tech and sponsorship deal with the software giant
- George Russell and Kimi Antonelli are set to lead Mercedes into F1’s new era, with early private runs at Silverstone and a packed testing schedule in Barcelona and Bahrain before the Australian Grand Prix opener
Mercedes is treating 2026 as a hard reboot. The W17 is the team’s first response to the sport’s sweeping chassis, power unit and fuel regulations, arriving as the “biggest technical shake-up in the sport’s history”. The car is shorter, narrower and lighter than its predecessors, built around active aero with moveable front and rear wings and a power unit delivering a near 50/50 split between electric and combustion power on advanced sustainable fuels.
Visually, the W17 keeps Mercedes’ signature black-and-silver identity but sharpens the attitude. A sweeping Petronas green flow line carries the eye from nose to tail, flipping silver into deep black, while AMG-inspired rhombus graphics and a starfield engine cover push the branding into statement territory. New Microsoft logos on the airbox and front wing signal a multi-year partnership that goes way beyond paint, tying the team’s simulations, race strategy modelling and trackside data feeds into Azure cloud and enterprise AI. On track, the intent is just as aggressive. Russell and Antonelli have already logged nearly 200km at a wet Silverstone filming day to validate systems before the behind-closed-doors Barcelona shakedown and dual Bahrain tests. After four years without a title, Mercedes is leaning on its historic record of nailing major rule resets, its Brixworth power-unit brain trust and now its Microsoft-backed data stack to try and own F1’s next era rather than chase it.
