Formula 1's director of motorsport, Ross Brawn, believes fans are in for an exciting end to the current season regardless of whether or not the title is decided in Mercedes' favour early on, and that excitement will carry across to the 2020 season.
There are stable regulations next year, which means very little will change between now and 2020, therefore any new developments this season will continue to benefit next year's cars – this means team's will continue to push and develop their current machinery which in theory should bring them closer together in terms of performance.
This already seems to be happening, with the dominant Mercedes team now looking inferior to Ferrari, which has won three consecutive races now. Although some of that is down to the tracks, Singapore proved the Italian team has taken a step forward and now looks likely to challenge Mercedes in the final six races.
Red Bull too is closer, but still has some work to do to catch up, but there's no reason it won't do so in the next few races according to Brawn.
"With no major rule changes next year, continuing with car development even when the championship fight is more or less decided, still makes more sense and can add value for 2020," he explained.
"So, for Ferrari, it was important to be competitive on a track like Singapore – the success of those updates bodes well for the team’s 2020 campaign as well – and in a certain sense, this will help Mercedes because it now knows it can’t relax for a moment if it wants to continue to dominate in the hybrid era.
"That battle, which also includes Red Bull will, make for an even more exciting end to the season, because the three teams will be fighting it out at each Grand Prix regardless of the impact on the Championships.
"Not just for reasons of competition or prestige but also to be in the best position for 2020."
