The Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ is a highly successful Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Paddy Lowe, Aldo Costa, Geoff Willis, Loïc Serra, Russell Cooley, John Owen, Mike Elliott and Jarrod Murphy to compete during the 2017 Formula One World Championship. The car was driven by three-time World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton, who remained with the team for a fifth season, and Valtteri Bottas, who joined the team after World Champion Nico Rosberg's retirement from the sport.
The chassis was originally named the "Mercedes F1 W08" to represent the eighth Formula One car that Mercedes had constructed since . The "EQ Power+" was added to increase exposure of Mercedes' electric road car models, whilst AMG was included to reflect the relationship between Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Benz. The car made its competitive début at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, the opening round of the 2017 season. After participating in 19 rounds of Grand Prix racing, the car made its final competition appearance at the season finale race – the 2017 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before retirement.
The F1 W08 EQ Power+ took twelve wins (nine for Hamilton and three for Bottas), fifteen pole positions (eleven for Hamilton and four for Bottas), nine fastest laps (seven for Hamilton and two for Bottas) and four 1–2 finishes. The team clinched their fourth consecutive Constructors' Championship at the , the 17th race of the season with three races to spare. Hamilton clinched his fourth World Drivers' Championship at the season's next round, the .
Design and development Initial design
In order to improve airflow for better aerodynamics purposes, Mercedes changed the front suspension by having the top wishbone attach directly to an extension before connecting to an upright. The increment in height of the top wishbone is to prevent the disturbance of airflow travelling from the front of the car, to the side-pods and towards the rear suspension, which may affect the stability of the entire car. Coincidentally, Scuderia Toro Rosso also has this aerodynamic design on its 2017 car, the Toro Rosso STR12. Mercedes adopted a "" device on the rear of the car to generate better rear down-force. The "T-wing" device was seen as an external design mounted on the engine cover rather than shark fin like other 2017 cars. Bowl-shaped rear wing design brought from its predecessors remains on F1 W08 EQ Power+ to create higher down-force and reducing drag.
Barcelona upgrade Mercedes brought its first major aerodynamic upgrade at the , changing the car from the front to the rear. The most obvious change was the introduction of a new, narrower nose which included a never seen before under-nose turning vane to help create a type of skirt underneath the car. Furthermore, Mercedes redesigned the area of the bargeboards which subsequently sported three R-shaped upstands. They also revised the winglet on the wishbone extension and introduced new camera mounts, a revised floor ahead of the rear tyre, a revised rear wing, and a new two-tier monkey seat. According to Michael Schmidt from German magazine auto motor und sport, the upgrade wasn't supposed to have major time gains (apparently only 0.1 s). Mercedes' main targets were to make the car more consistent and to bring its tyres more easily into the operating window, as previously these had been their main deficits in comparison to Ferrari.
Development testing During the , Mercedes experimented asymmetric brake set-up during both practice session on Friday for running greater cooling capacity on one side of the car. However, to speed up getting heat into the front tyres, the team decided to revert to symmetric layout during Saturday final practice, qualifying and Sunday race.
Sepang upgrade Mercedes brought a package of upgrades to the . They made a change to the front wing design, with the leading edge of the mainplane swept upward to encourage airflow under the wing, guided by the now-pronounced strakes that reside beneath. The under-nose ‘cape’ which Mercedes introduced in Spain and revised in Austria got altered again, with the leading edge of the device widened. The highly complex area of the bargeboards - which includes 20 different surfaces working together - was also changed. The vertical cascades mounted on the edge of the serrated floor strakes got modified, reducing their height while also being angled more aggressively. The axehead, which was normally split into four serrated surfaces, got reduced to three, with outermost two surfaces combined. They also modified the diffusor by including innermost strakes.
Launch, pre-season and in-season testing
The Mercedes AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ was unofficially launched at the Silverstone Circuit with Hamilton and Bottas completing an inaugural shakedown on 23 February 2017. The car took part the pre-season testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 27–March 2 and March 7–10. During the eight testing days, the car completed 1096 laps; a total of , equivalent to over 16 race distances. The car was also driven by 2017 GP3 Series champion George Russell during in-season testing.
Season summary Opening rounds
Hamilton took pole position for the season-opening , and held the early lead until the sole round of pit stops. He came out behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and was unable to overtake him, giving Vettel the opportunity to build a lead which was big enough to emerge ahead of Hamilton after making his only pit stop. Hamilton was unable to catch Vettel and finished in second place. Bottas started third and held his position, securing a podium of his own.
Hamilton qualified on pole position again for the , and in a race that saw variable conditions, Hamilton claimed his third career grand slam, while Bottas recovered to sixth after an early spin. After the race, Mercedes took the lead in the Constructors' Championship by a solitary point from Ferrari.
At the , Bottas took his maiden Formula One pole position after beating his teammate Hamilton by a quarter of a second, locking out the front row of the grid. During the race, Hamilton was passed by Sebastian Vettel during the start while Bottas stayed in the lead, and they held their positions until the first round of pit stops. Vettel was the first to make a stop and managed to take the lead from Bottas when the latter changed tyres. Hamilton lost a place to Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo himself and also incurred a time penalty for deliberately blocking Ricciardo in the pit entry. Hamilton rebounded to finish second ahead of Bottas, thus as a result, Mercedes relinquished the championship lead again to Ferrari.
European and Canadian rounds At the fourth round of the season – the , Mercedes struggled to be at the forefront, with Bottas and Hamilton qualifying only 3rd and 4th respectively as Ferrari locked out the front-row of the grid, the worst qualifying result since the 2015 Singapore Grand Prix. In the race, Bottas grabbed the lead at the start in Sochi and pulled away through a mighty first stint, but then came under increasing pressure as Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel closed rapidly in the closing stages. Bottas held off Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel by six tenths of a second, to secure his maiden victory in his Formula 1 career. On the other hand, Hamilton continued to struggle on pace, hampered by overheating issues, during the whole course of the race, finishing fourth. Having completed one-fifth of the season, Mercedes took back the lead in the Constructors' Championship by just a solitary point over their closest rivals, Ferrari.
Although Ferrari had shown a dominating performance during winter testing and had achieved a front-row lockout in Sochi, Hamilton managed to defeat Vettel for pole in the qualifying of the by the tiny margin of 0.051 s. After having to deal with technical issues on his car before and during FP3, Bottas managed to take P3, 2 tenths behind his teammate. Vettel managed to overtake Hamilton at the start of the race and led the early stages but Hamilton was later able to take advantage of a virtual safety car period to pit for new soft tyres which helped him overtake Vettel soon after. Hamilton, despite being on a lengthy stint on those same tyres, was able to keep Vettel (who was on medium tyres) at bay to win his second race of the season and took his 12th career hat-trick. Bottas escaped a collision with Räikkönen at the start without damage but later retired due to an engine failure while running third which cost Mercedes a double podium finish.
The saw both Mercedes struggle for traction and pace which resulted in Bottas and Hamilton qualifying 3rd and 14th respectively. At the race, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo managed to overcut Bottas by taking the last podium position. Meanwhile, Hamilton stayed out until lap 46 to make his sole pit-stop and managed to grab 7th place after starting from 13th on the grid. Mercedes subsequently lost the lead in the Constructors' Championship by 17 points, as neither of the two drivers finished on the podium for the first time since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
At the , Hamilton matched Ayrton Senna's second-place record of 65 pole positions. In the process, he set the fastest lap ever at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (1m 11.459s), smashing Ralf Schumacher’s qualifying lap record of 1m 12.275s from 2004 by 0.816 s. Bottas took P3, behind Vettel but ahead of Räikkönen. Mercedes earned their first 1-2 finish of the season with an easy win from Hamilton, his third of the season and sixth overall in Canada. Hamilton also recorded his fourth career grand slam – equaling his idol Senna again – and his second in 2017 after the . Bottas completed the 1–2 with a controlled second-place finish but had some luck when Verstappen retired while running second in the early laps. Mercedes also took back the lead in the Constructors' Championship over Ferrari.
Mercedes achieved their second front row lockout of the season during qualifying for the in a dominating performance. With a phenomenal last lap Hamilton snatched pole position back from his teammate by over 4 tenths. Both Ferraris couldn't get within 1 second of the pole time. Hamilton's 66th career pole left him just two shy of matching Michael Schumacher's all-time record. Hamilton started well while Bottas collided with his rival countryman - Kimi Räikkönen, causing a puncture on his front right tyre. Bottas was forced to stop, falling one lap behind his teammate. The race continued with much drama, three safety cars and 1 red flag period due to clashes of other cars and debris on the track. After a 20-minute red flag period, the race was restarted behind the Safety Car. Hamilton led at the restart however he had a loose headrest issue causing him to pit for a new headrest, consequently losing the lead of the race. Bottas recovered and claimed second by slip-streaming Lance Stroll on the finishing line, while Hamilton took fifth behind rival Vettel.