Mercedes happy after 2016 car debut

Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes’ new 2016 car an early thumbs-up on Friday.

On Silverstone’s short layout, the German driver was the first at the wheel of the W07 during a 100 kilometre ’filming day’.

"It was a good feeling to start with," he told Britain’s Sky television. "I felt at home straight away.

"I could push as if I raced Abu Dhabi yesterday so a good beginning," added Rosberg, whose teammate Lewis Hamilton also got a turn at the wheel.

Their technical boss Paddy Lowe agreed: "Everything has gone very well. We haven’t even taken the engine cover off yet in the whole morning session which is a really good sign of the reliability that we’ve achieved at this point."

The car, which Lowe said was "a little bit louder" than the 2015 version even though it was not running at full throttle, will now be taken to Barcelona for the start of official testing on Monday.