Reaching the top is a challenge. Staying there is even tougher. Mercedes has now been at the summit of Formula 1 for a record-equalling six years. Motorsport Week concludes its end-of-season review by charting the champions’ 2019 campaign.
Leaving pre-season testing there were more than a few murmurs that this could be the year when Ferrari finally threatened Mercedes’ hegemony. But as disappointing and lackadaisical as Ferrari were, Mercedes retained its impressive hunger and razor-sharp organisation. The final win scores of Mercedes 15, Ferrari 3 and Red Bull 3 gives the illusion of Mercedes holding a dominant package but while its W10 was frequently faster in race trim than the SF90 and RB15 its tally was flattered by a supreme team, superstar driver, and support act who stepped up to his best level yet.
After the ‘diva’ of 2017 and a car that still struggled at some high-downforce venues in 2018 Mercedes modified its design philosophy slightly for 2019, aiming to produce a more consistent package that was less dependent on pure power. As the design stage wore on in 2018 it was apparent which front wing direction Mercedes felt was best to take and such was the strenuous push to ready the better concept that a whole new car was in effect introduced at the second test. Mercedes was on the back foot but its greater potential curve – and work undertaken prior to Australia – ensured it arrived at the season-opening event with the quickest package. It did, legitimately, fear after pre-season that Ferrari was substantially ahead.
.jpg)
“Over the years I think chassis and power unit have merged in order to extract the optimum lap time,” said Toto Wolff on migrating Mercedes’ mindset. And half of that was that the engine is still impressive, but we were able to wrap a chassis around it that has more downforce and more drag. We are not the quickest car anymore on the straights but we believe that the best compromise between these two blocks of performance works well for us.” It meant that Mercedes not only remained the team to beat at venues such as Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Silverstone, but was rapid in Monaco – taking a dry-weather win for the first time since 2015 – and Hungary.
The revised W10 design, allied with Pirelli’s new-for-2019 tyres, went a long way to curing previous woes with tyre blistering, while the car’s consistency also assisted matters. Even on the rare occasion it was third-fastest it was firmly in the ballpark, with one Mercedes driver qualifying at worst third at each grand prix. As ever Mercedes’ in-season development was strong while the only major concern came in Austria, when the extreme European heatwave exposed the cooling issues, meaning Mercedes had to severely compromise its aerodynamic package while turning down the engine. It sought a remedy and a few weeks later in sweltering Germany it had significantly less concerns. It also had some setbacks with its Phase 3 engine – affecting Williams and Racing Point – while Bottas’ Brazil exit was a rare failure. But its early dominance also allowed it to make an earlier-than-anticipated switch onto its 2020 package, in an attempt to get a head start, partly explaining why its rivals were closer after the summer break. “A championship is a management of your point-scoring ability throughout the year and we could have decided a while ago to push throughout until the end and compromise next year but we didn’t do it,” said Wolff in Russia, which was the biggest hint of where its focus rested. On whether Mercedes could change its concept for 2020 Wolff said “it is something we are looking at but you need to put it into perspective between a draggy car and a not draggy car, they are the two extremes that you see on track, on the whole grid you will find two-tenths difference.”
.jpg)
Mercedes has emerged as Formula 1’s greatest team, with the core architects of the race operations having now been in place for the best part of a decade or more. But the slick team still had to adapt in 2019. The biggest setback was the tragic loss of Niki Lauda, whose passing left a vacuum in the senior hierarchy, with the three-time champion respected for his honesty, wisdom and knowledge. Mercedes paid tribute to Lauda throughout 2019, painting one of the stars on the W10’s bodywork red, and keeping his iconic red cap placed upon his headset in the garage. When Hamilton’s regular race engineer Pete Bonnington was unavailable for Mexico his replacement Markus Dudley filled the role with ease, highlighting the team’s strength in depth and ability to manage resources. Mercedes was not completely perfect: tyre blunder in Monaco threatened to derail win prospects, Singapore strategy was also wayward, while in Germany its anniversary celebrations backfired in spectacular fashion, culminating in that 50-second pit stop which resembled a silent movie sketch. Mid-season Bottas/Ocon decision locked in an unchanged line-up but team boss Wolff conceded that the situation could have been handled in a savvier fashion. End-of-season rumours regarding Hamilton to Ferrari, and his own future, acted as an aperitif as to the likely main talking points through 2020, a talking point that – along with Mercedes’ own future – will need careful and considered management. But with each passing year Mercedes becomes a slicker and sharper race unit, bolstered by its own success and founded upon open communication and long-term partnerships between the primary figures within the team.
.jpg)
What more is there to be said about Lewis Hamilton that has not already been said? He is now, statistically, the second-greatest driver in Formula 1 history, and barring a complete disaster in 12 months’ time he will be he most successful of all, with Michael Schumacher’s tally of 91 wins now firmly within reach. Hamilton triumphed at 11 of the 21 grands prix in 2019 and while he had the fastest package for much of the season that tally flattered the car. Hamilton put himself into positions to win in Bahrain and Canada, both times pressuring Vettel into critical mistakes, to ensure he was the one to pick up the pieces. In Hungary he executed Mercedes’ bold strategy, overcoming initial doubts, while in Russia his relentlessness meant he was within the window to capitalise when Ferrari’s race unravelled. At other venues, such as in China, Spain, France, Britain and Abu Dhabi, he was just in a different division, pulverising his opposition with such ease that he was setting fastest laps for fun on older and harder tyres. There are still sometimes a few off-days, most notably in Germany – where he was ill – while only major in-race blunder elsewhere was after the title was won, in Brazil. As ever Hamilton retains a relentless hunger to improve and that remains a worry for his rival. In the heady aftermath of his title-clinching performance he asserted he is still building “a masterpiece” and there’s no doubt his foot is still heavy on the throttle. Outside of the track Hamilton continues to mature, nobly putting his head above the parapet to voice concerns over the environment, politics and motorsport itself, while expanding his brand without losing that laser focus on racing.
“It takes a long time to master a craft and whilst I feel like I am mastering it, there’s still more to master,” he said. “There’s still more to add to it. There’s still more pieces to the puzzle to add. There’s going to be more ups and downs along the way but I feel like I’ve got the best tools now, to this point at least, to be able to deal with those.”
.jpg)
A newly-bearded Valtteri Bottas emphasised pre-season that he had learned from his troubled 2018 campaign, in which he slumped to a win-less fifth in the standings, partly losing his love for the sport. Bottas and his trainer worked hard on tweaking his schedule, adapting his training regime, while over the winter he refocused, reset and relaxed. The Bottas that appeared in Melbourne was a figure transformed from the one who skulked out of Yas Marina four months previously. He dominated in Australia, coining the term Bottas 2.0, and followed it up with a redemptive win in Azerbaijan. But from there his title aspirations began to fizzle. It was during the bulk of the campaign that the division between the great and the very good was shown; Bottas was often at the wrong end of very small margins but they were crucial. He was nonetheless still realistically in the hunt until two crucial mistakes in just seven days: crashing out in Germany and making a hash of the first lap in Hungary. Rather than entering the summer break 30 or so points behind Hamilton he found himself staring at a 62-point deficit. He later accepted that uncertainty over his future did not assist his focus during this period. Thereafter he re-grouped and was closer to Hamilton, relinquishing 25 points across nine grands prix, the high points being a controlled drive in Japan and emphatic display in the United States. However, by then the title fight was over.
“I made good gains on all the areas this year, better than in the previous years,” said Bottas. “But I still need, over the whole season, to master every single track and conditions, so that’s the thing, I would say, consistency throughout the year.” Up against the relentless Hamilton that is a tall order. No-one wants to finish second, but when the champion is one of Formula 1’s greatest it is no small feat.
For the past three years Lewis Hamilton has wrapped up the title two rounds early, with Mercedes sauntering to the Constructors’ crown. Will it be seventh heaven in 2020? You’d be extremely bold to put your money elsewhere…
.jpg)
