Mercedes says the “hunger” from its main Formula 1 rivals to end its dominant streak was the key towards them taking an “aggressive” approach when designing its 2020 car.

The Brackley-based team is attempting to claim a record seventh straight constructors’ title this year, but is wary of the competition posed by the opposition.

During the first week of pre-season testing in Barcelona, Mercedes revealed a revolutionary steering mode device named Dual Axis Steering [DAS] as part of its attempt to prevent opponents from stealing its crown.

Technical director James Allison explained that despite last year’s W10 being the class of the field, the team opted to push the boundaries further with its 2020 design.

Speaking in a video posted by Mercedes on social media, Allison said: “The temptation for us was just to keep polishing that one, after all it finished the season really strongly and it was developing very fast all the way through the year, so there was still lots of opportunity to make that one quicker.

“That conservative approach was very, very tempting. But in the end, we decided that wouldn’t be enough. We were feeling the breath of our opponents on our shoulders. We know their hunger and we know that if we don’t do something impressive with this car, they will eat us up and leave us behind.

“So, we decided that we would make a car that was aggressive. Despite the fact that there is no change in the regulations, we would take every part of the car and see if we could challenge ourselves to make it better.”

Allison said that while the DAS system was the main talking point on the W11, he stressed many more elements had been incorporated onto the car.

“You’re not going to see all the detail, but I can tell you that the rear suspension on this car is extremely adventurous,” he added.

“We have put into the back, specifically on the lower rear wishbone, we have put a new geometry in there, a new geometry that gives us more aerodynamic opportunity, allows us to get more downforce on the car.”

Illustrating where Mercedes’ package has improved compared to last season, Allison said: “We have got a car here that is streaks ahead of that one in terms of downforce.

“We have got a car here whose development slope has kicked up, is steeper than the one that we finished last year’s with, in that very, very good car from 2019. And we’ve got a car here that we hope will be fertile ground to develop strongly all the way through the 2020 season.”