F1 analysis: Mercedes confirm status as team to beat this season

Matt Majendie 11:50 31/03/2014
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  • Dominant: Hamilton, ahead of team-mate Rosberg, en route to victory in the Malaysian GP.

    The overhaul in Formula 1 technical regulations for the 2014 season was supposed to be the dawning of a new era.

    There was talk of the grid being turned on its head, of a litany of different race winners at least in the opening Grands Prix of the season.

    A new era has certainly dawned in F1, but not as the sport’s hierarchy might have envisaged.

    Where, until a few races ago, Red Bull were the dominant force in the sport, Mercedes have simply slotted into that position.

    There had been suggestions in winter testing that other Mercedes-powered cars such as Williams, McLaren and Force India would get close to race wins.

    In truth, they’ve barely had the factory Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in their sights in the two races to date. The dominance had been apparent with Rosberg’s win in Australia, the German greeted with the chequered flag 25 seconds ahead of his closest rival.

    Hamilton’s win in Sepang merely accentuated that fact. Within a lap, he was already two seconds clear, two laps later that lead was doubled. 

    Worryingly for the kingmakers of the sport and Mercedes’ rivals, there was even a point when he was lapping one-and-a-half seconds quicker a lap than anyone else.

    His winning margin of 17 seconds could have been notably higher in truth had Mercedes not turned down his engine and his race engineer Pete Bonnington not politely told him to slow down as an engine conservation measure – remember, drivers are allowed just five engines to span the 19-race season in 2014.

    There is just one week to go until the next race in Bahrain and it is hard to see how any team can get close to the Mercedes, with Hamilton boasting pole position, the fastest lap and the race win in Malaysia.

    Are there any chinks in their armour? On the surface, no. The issues with rear tyre wear that have habitually been a problem since Mercedes bought the Brawn GP team have not emerged with any great alarm so far this season.

    Initially, the heat in Malaysia, where on-track temperatures hit the 50-degree mark, hinted at potential issues in that area. Rosberg complained over the race radio that his rears were overheating early on, but that was as much down to the fact that he was pushing to the limit to keep Sebastian Vettel at bay than any great issue with the Pirelli rubber.

    As for reliability, there were no apparent problems for Mercedes in Malaysia as there had been two weeks previously in Australia.

    And suggestions that fuel consumption might be an issue also dissipated significantly, Hamilton using less of the 100kg fuel allowance per race than any other driver on the grid.

    So what does this mean for F1 in 2014?

    Well, unlike in Vettel’s period of dominance where Mark Webber was clearly second best, there should be a titanic tussle within Mercedes between their two drivers, who have been given the green light to race by the team’s hierarchy.

    Mercedes’ Toto Wolff overstated the point when he said: “Red Bull are still the benchmark.”

    No one truly believes that, but the defending champions with supposedly a pig of a car have twice been on the podium this season, although admittedly Daniel Ricciardo’s second place was rescinded in Australia for flouting the fuel-consumption rules.

    For the good of the championship, Red Bull need to up their pace further still having apparently sorted out their reliability gremlins, otherwise the first Mercedes one-two for nearly six decades will become too regular a recurrence.

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