The W11 was developed under the direction of James Allison, John Owen, Mike Elliott, Loïc Serra, Ashley Way, Emiliano Giangiulio, Jarrod Murphy, and Eric Blandin. Its most distinctive technical innovation was a system Mercedes called Dual-Axis Steering (DAS), which allowed the driver to adjust the toe angle of the front wheels by pulling or pushing the steering column. A zero-toe setting helped warm the tyres more efficiently, while a negative-toe setting improved cornering ability — a particularly valuable tool on circuits featuring long straights. The rear suspension was redesigned compared to the predecessor car with the specific goal of reducing understeer.
The W11 featured a notable livery change from the traditional silver of its predecessors to black, announced in late June 2020 following the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Lewis Hamilton was instrumental in prompting the livery change, seeking a statement beyond social media posts.
DAS was banned by the FIA for the 2021 season after its single year of use.
The W11 was planned to make its competitive debut at the 2020 Australian Grand Prix, but the race was cancelled as part of a global pandemic response that delayed or postponed multiple rounds. The delay gave Mercedes additional time to address reliability concerns before the car's eventual debut at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas remained the primary drivers throughout the season, entering their eighth and fourth seasons with the team respectively. At the Sakhir Grand Prix, Hamilton was forced to miss the race after testing positive for COVID-19 and was replaced by Williams driver George Russell, a Mercedes protégé. Russell qualified second and led most of the race until a pit stop error in which Mercedes fitted him with Bottas's tyres, forcing an extra stop and effectively ending his victory bid. A late puncture then cost Russell a potential podium, and he finished ninth with fastest lap. Bottas completed the race in eighth.
Across 17 races, the W11 took thirteen victories — eleven for Hamilton and two for Bottas — along with fifteen pole positions (ten for Hamilton and five for Bottas), nine fastest laps, twelve front-row lockouts, and five 1-2 finishes.
At the Austrian Grand Prix season opener, Bottas qualified on pole and won, while Hamilton received a three-place grid penalty for failing to slow for yellow flags and was further penalised five seconds during the race for a collision with Alexander Albon, ultimately finishing fourth. Hamilton won the following Styrian Grand Prix by a margin of over 1.2 seconds in qualifying. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Hamilton won for his eighth career victory at the Hungaroring, equalling the record for most wins at a single venue.
The British Grand Prix produced one of the season's most dramatic finishes. Hamilton had built a large lead before suffering a tyre delamination on the final lap, yet still crossed the line ahead of second-place finisher Max Verstappen, the gap having shrunk from around 30 seconds to approximately six. Bottas suffered his own delamination and fell to eleventh. At the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton set a new outright track record at Spa-Francorchamps with a time of 1:41.252, qualifying half a second clear of Bottas.
The season's one exception to W11 dominance came at the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone, where high temperatures caused excessive tyre wear and blistering, allowing Red Bull's Max Verstappen to win — the only 2020 race not won by Mercedes.
Hamilton clinched the Drivers' Championship and Mercedes secured the Constructors' title ahead of the season finale. At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull's Verstappen took pole and led the race, with Hamilton and Bottas completing the podium.
Russell's one-off appearance at the Sakhir Grand Prix was widely noted as a showcase of his talent. He overtook Bottas, who had taken pole, at the race start and led most of the event before the tyre error ended his bid for victory. Despite the eventual ninth-place finish, his pace relative to the regular Mercedes drivers attracted considerable attention.
With the W11 setting the outright fastest laps ever recorded at numerous Formula One circuits, the car is considered among the all-time fastest Formula One machines. The seven consecutive Constructors' Championships achieved with the W11's title broke Ferrari's previous record for consecutive championship wins. The DAS system, despite its brief life, became one of the most discussed engineering innovations of the hybrid era. The car was featured as a playable vehicle in F1 2020 and Real Racing 3.
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