JANUARY 28, 2014

Far too early to predict title win says Wolff

Anticipation is high as Mercedes, tipped as a 2014 championship favourite, prepares to reveal its new silver and black W05.

Anticipation is high as Mercedes, tipped as a 2014 championship favourite, prepares to reveal its new silver and black W05.

The Brackley based team has been revealing teasers of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton's new car on Twitter, and the latest image depicts a low, perhaps Ferrari-style front nose, with fascinating twin winglets.

Given it it is a works maker of chassis and engine, a status effectively shared in F1 only by fabled Ferrari, Mercedes is being tipped as a true favourite to dethrone Red Bull in 2014.

The W05, now at Jerez for its imminent launch, has already been run at Silverstone for a 40km 'filming' shakedown, and German Rosberg sounded positive on Twitter.

Mercedes' motor sport boss Toto Wolff, however, is cautious.

"It's far too early at this stage to talk about the championship," he is quoted by the German news agency DPA.

Wolff confirmed, however, that the team has been working particularly hard over the winter, with a "night shift necessary every night".

(GMM)