Mercedes! the team that returned to Formula One in 2010 with the W01 car, zero championships, spent 13 years so far and made history. Now, the team has eight constructors win, 125 Grand Prix Wins, and the GOAT drivers of Formula One. The journey from 0 to 8 wins must have been exciting, filled with struggles, failures, strategies, disappointments, experiments, learnings, and mostly, successes.
The Silver started the journey back with Juan Manuel Fangio in 1954, winning the first race in France. And, when Mercedes came back in 2010 with the legend Michael Schumacher, it dominated Formula One for almost a decade, clinching the last race win in Brazil with George Russell in 2022. This was the only race win of the season, meaning the team did the worst in 2022 in history. But does it also mean that Mercedes’s domination is over now? Is Mercedes falling?
There is no one in the world who gets no goosebumps while listening to the story of the Silver Arrows. No one in the world is unimpressed by the Mercedes, including its rival, reigning champion team Red Bull. When Adrian Newey and Helmut Marko discuss the success story of Mercedes, they figure out what made Mercedes fall so badly in 2022. However, they also suspect a chance of a strong comeback for the team in the future. They say ‘just a failure of a year can’t decide the future of a Formula One team’. So let’s be optimistic about Mercedes too.
Mercedes Had A Decent Engine That Red Bull Lacked, The Reason Why Red Bull Fell
In an interview with SilverArrows.net, Adrian Newey explained that the main reason why Mercedes overtook Red Bull in 2014 was “a decent engine”. Red Bull lacked a decent engine, as Renault failed to adjust to the turbo hybrid era. The entire time when Mercedes came back and started dominating like no one else ever did, was “pretty depressing” for Red Bull.
Meanwhile, the advisor of Red Bull, Dr. Helmut Marko, figures out what actually helped Merceded grow stronger each year during the period of their domination. He said, “Mercedes’s success was due to superior engine performance.”. He specified, “at least for the initial four years.” So when the turbo Hybrid era began, Mercedes succeeded in adopting the rules very well, while Red Bull failed. As a result, the team did not see the championship shine for eight continuous years.
However, in 2022 the dice turned, and Red Bull got the six! This time when the turbo hybrid era ended and the ground effect regulations got introduced, things changed. Red Bull mastered itself in adjusting to them, and Mercedes failed same as happened with Red Bull back in 2014. Now the question is, Will Mercedes also face continuous failure like Red Bull for eight or fewer continuous years? Is it the beginning of Mercedes’s fall? Or the Silver Arrows Will come back stronger in 2023?
