36 F1 RACING JANUARY 2020
“We could spend awhole day trying to
analyse what Ibeli eve are the strengths of
the group, but there are so many factors and
so many faces come into mymind that I see
through the year tired, happy,tired, happy and
just pushingthroug h.”
Similar thingscould have been said about
Ferrariin the Todt/Brawn/Schumacher era, but
there are somekey differences thatarguably
make Merc edes’ achievement all the greater,
and notjust because ithas beaten the record.
Ferrari hada numberof key advantages
that Mercedes hasn’t. For one, Ferrarihad th e
biggest budget in F1. Mercedes doesn’t – that
still belongs to Ferrari.
For another, Ferrarihad bespoke tyres from
Bridgestone, while Mercedes has to cope with
the samePirellis as everyone else.And Ferrar i
had unlimited testing,and twoof its own test
tracks to do iton, whileMercedes isfaced with
the same testingrestrictions aseveryone else.
On the other hand,Mercedes did start its
run with onekey advantage Ferrari didnot.
Its fi rst championship double came with the
introduction of the new turbo hybrid engineregulations, inwhic h Mercedes invested earlier
and more heavilythan anyone else.
That resultedin a huge advantage over
other manufacturers in2014 – a fi gure Ferrari
now puts ataro und 80bhp. However, by
2015, Ferrari was within spitting distanceof
Mercedes, and yet the silvercars k ept winning.
And since2018, Ferrarihas had the most
powerful engine in F1, but still hasn’t been able
to unseat Mercedes.
In fact, in 2017 and2018, many wouldargue
Mercedes didn’t even have the best car for most
of the season. It won both those titles because
Ferrari and Sebastian Vettelbetw een them
made too many mistakes, while Mercedes and
Hamilton have collectivelyoperatedat a level
beyond the reachof anyone else.
Hamilton, in particular, has been critical to
Mercedesmaintainingits winningrun.
Through 2014-16, pretty much any top-line
driver in a Mercedes would have been champion,
so great was its advantage. But the same
could not be said of 2017-18, when Hamilton’s
consistentexce llence, pace, and unmatched
racing skills proved too much for Vettel, eventhough for thefi rst two-thirds of each season at
least the German had the best car.
In the Fe rrari era, too, the driver was vital.
In 2002 and 2004, Ferrariwas dominant.
But it took a ll Schumacher’s skills to prevent
McLaren’sMika Häkkinenwinning three ina
row in 2000. Andin 2001 and 2003Ferrari
als o faced tough competition.
2003, in pa rticular, was hard work, andit
took a controversial declaration fromthe
FIA that the Michelin tyres usedby t itle rivals
Williamsand McLarenwere being run in a
way thatmade them too wide– a ruling made
following an intervention from Ferrari and
Bridgestone– to make th ings more comfortable.
After that, neither Williams nor McLaren
won anotherrace.
The irony is that it was a tyre-relatedrule
change that eventuallyput th e brakes on
Ferrari’s success. For 2005, it was decided that
while refuelling wouldcontinue, drivers could
use only o ne set of tyres duringa grand prix.
“The tyrechange wasa big thing,”Bra wn
says. “We had a great partnershipwith
Bridgestone that hada certain philosophy
of tyre; light, small capacitycar; sprint-race
format. And suddenlythe rules saidyou had to
use the same tyre all race. That wasa dramatic
change for us.”
Ferrari won only onceall year in 2005–
and that was onlybec ause all the Michelin
cars pulled out ofthe inf amous US Grand
Prix on safety grounds, because Michelin had
miscalculatedthe stressesthe banked oval
corner atthe end ofthe la p would puton the
tyres, and they were failing. For2006, tyre
changes were allowed again, and Ferr ari an d
Schumacher were competitive oncemore,
but FernandoAlonso and Renault provedtoo
strong and took asecond consecutive title.
Mercedeshas proved adeptat coping
with rule changes. The engine rules have
remainedfundamentally unchanged since
2014, otherthan a relaxationof restrictions
on development. But thechassis rules haveMercedes won 84.72% of the
pointsavailableto the team in 2016Mercedes won 77.67% of the
pointsavailableto the team in 2017Schumacher hadto dig deep in 2000to prevent
Mika Häkkinen clinching a third title and thus
kickstartedFerrari’sfi ve-y ear domination......and Hamilton has hadto raise his gameto
ensure Mercedes stayed ontop even when it
no longer had the fastest on-track package