 Mercedes publicly announced its CLR programme in February 1999 just days before the first car began private testing at California Speedway in the United States . Testing continued into March at California as well as Homestead @-@ Miami Speedway in Florida before the team moved to the Circuit de Nevers Magny @-@ Cours in France . At Magny @-@ Cours three CLRs completed a 30 @-@ hour test session covering 8 @,@ 073 mi ( 12 @,@ 992 km ) . On 20 April the CLR was shown to the press for the first time during a test session at the Hockenheimring in Germany . By that point in the development process the CLRs had covered 21 @,@ 735 mi ( 34 @,@ 979 km ) in testing without any major failures . 
