After several seasons of lying in limbo between the front and the midfield, the three-pointed star seemed to have finally reached their awaited promised land and reap the benefits of their long-term project. 2014 saw Mercedes emphatically dethrone Red Bull as the dominant force in Formula 1 with what some argue is the most dominant machinery assembled in the sport’s history in the shape of the W05 Hybrid.
Their performance advantage was as clear as daylight from as early as February this year, when the car emerged as head and shoulders above the chasing pack’s challengers in raw pace and reliability during pre-season testing.
Such was the size of their advantage that only occasional driver clashes, unreliaiblity and strategy calls stood in the way of victory three times and potentially going unbeaten over the course of the season. In terms of what others could also see was that the drivers championship would certainly be in either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg’s hands by the time the season closed in Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes had to wait until the second race in Malaysia to make the most of the car’s full potential, with Hamilton grinding to a halt in Australia due to a misfiring cylinder, leaving Rosberg to collect the 25 points left available rather than 43 from a likely 1-2 finish, which they got come Malaysia and was succeeded by four more 1-2 finishes. Hamilton leading three of the four, plus Malaysia, while team-mate Rosberg was ahead on the road in the other in Monaco although in controversial fashion.
But Mercedes had one challenge that was rising, and it wasn’t from their rivals, but rather from their own drivers as it dawned on them that they were to be the main contenders for the championship. The first warning signs of their egos taking a hold emerged, when illegal engine modes were used to aid Rosberg in Bahrain and Hamilton in Spain during their fierce, nip-and tuck scraps for victories. The team blocked their pilots from doing such thing again, but their need to win at all costs perhaps stepped up a notch in Monaco as Rosberg took to the escape road on his final qualifying run to bring out the yellow flags and deny his team-mate a chance of pole position, suspicions of deliberation on Rosberg’s part were on Hamilton’s mind for the rest of that weekend.
Even so, the powers-that-be didn’t feel t
he need to step in fully as Mercedes were still racking up the maximum points available and their drivers still kept at arms length on track, something that was no longer apparent later on in the season.
The W05 Hybrid wasn’t always bulletproof in reliability as was the case with Hamilton in the season-opener. More gremlins struck both cars this time in Canada in the form of ERS failures and subsequent loss of brakes for Hamilton and another retirement followed for the Briton, while Rosberg impressively nursed his car home to 2nd but conceded the race win to Daniel Ricciardo and Mercedes’ winning streak as a result. Unreliability ultimately got in the way of more points for the team in Silverstone with Rosberg’s gearbox problem, while in Germany and Hungary a brake failure and engine fire respectively for Hamilton during both qualifying sessions saw him have to carve his way through the field from the back.
A Silver Arrows did still conquered all in those races, along with Austria. Hamilton and Rosberg taking top honours in their home races and Rosberg doing so in Austria, despite gifting customers Williams a rare pole position. The exception was Hungary, where they were beaten on strategy by both Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso while Mercedes unsuccessfully imposed team orders as Hamilton refused to compromise his championship bid by letting Rosberg, on the better strategy in the team’s eyes, through. Perhaps Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda felt compelled to knock on Christian Horner’s door (they chose Alain Prost instead) for driver management tips as the intensity of Rosberg and Hamilton’s championship rivalry magnified and the grip the team had on the situation before began to loosen.
The water in the kettle finally seemed to have boiled over at Spa as Rosberg, after being jumped off the line by Hamilton at the race start, clipped his team-mate on the second lap, inflicting a puncture and eventual retirement for Hamilton while Rosberg sustained front wing damage and limped home in 2nd behind Ricciardo once more. Significantly it was the first on-track incident between the two and finally bit the team hard with valuable points lost, and prompted Wolff and Lauda to intervene in the situation after they both declared it “unacceptable”, with Hamilton publicly saying that Rosberg admitted on touching him on purpose as well as the powers-that-be blaming the German for the coming together afterwards.
Tensions never went beyond tho
se at Spa for the remainder of the season, much to the relief of the Mercedes camp. Both Rosberg and Hamilton were still granted the license to race freely, providing nothing like Spa occurred again but Spa was pivotal to the drivers championship as Hamilton reigned supreme in all but one of the remaining seven races and five 1-2 finishes that followed and helped Mercedes clinch their first constructors title in Sochi as well as place Hamilton well for his 2nd title. However Rosberg’s own aspirations began to disappear as he only scored one more win – and suffered the injustice of finishing off the campaign in 14th with a wounded car in the championship-deciding round at Abu Dhabi and paved the way for Hamilton to be crowned champion.
Fortunately, Mercedes’ fears of reliability being the deciding factor of the drivers championship, with double points up for grabs, were relieved by Hamilton holding a comfortable lead over Rosberg when the latter was struck with his ERS failure, as well as Hamilton obviously having a 17-point advantage in the championship heading to Abu Dhabi.
Lewis Hamilton – 384 points/1st in the Drivers championship
The package Mercedes had put together for 2014 presented Hamilton with his best chance of delivering the 2nd world championship that eluded him but was made to make hard work of it and was instantly on the back foot from the season-opener in Australia as a misfiring cylinder saw him lag 25 points behind Rosberg.
Having to make up for deficits and misfortunes created by car problems characterised Hamilton’s season as the chaser rather than leader and his ability to bounce back from disappointment was evident. Retirements in Australia and Spa, which the Briton regards as a turning point in the season of his intense title fight with his German team-mate, were followed up by a series of wins that he relied on to keep himself on the path to his 2nd world title. Racking up over double the number of race wins, his 11 wins to Rosberg’s 5 over the course of the season underlined Hamilton’s sheer superiority over a race distance.
He could’ve had an easier time fending off the challenge imposed by Rosberg had qualifying, arguably Hamilton’s main strength behind the wheel, went more in his favour. Rosberg became the first of Hamilton’s team-mates since Fernando Alonso in 2007 to beat him in qualifying throughout a racing season, virtue to Hamilton’s qualifying errors in Canada, Austria and particularly Silverstone, where a rare misjudgement saw him aborted his final run as the track began to approach its best and gift Rosberg pole.
The most scandalous of them all was Monaco, where Rosberg brought out the yellow flags on his final qualifying lap and denied others a chance to improve their times, with Hamilton being left disturbed by the incident for the rest of the weekend. Car problems in Germany and Hungary also compounded Hamilton’s qualifying hoodoo, all in all ensuring he had his work cut out on Sundays.
When he did, Hamilton recovered ground superbly – finishing just behind his team-mate in Austria and only Valtteri Bottas stood between him and Rosberg in the end in Germany. While ending up turning the tables on Rosberg on two other occasions: a popular win at Silverstone from sixth on the grid, while his team-mate exited the race from the lead due to a gearbox problem, and taking a controversial podium in Hungary after a pit-lane start, defying instructions from his team to allow Rosberg to pass for strategy’s sake.
One more retirement awaited Hamilton at Spa, where him and Rosberg came into contact at the end of Kemmel straight on lap two after jumping the German at the start, sending Hamilton down the order with a puncture and eventual retirement. Afterwards Hamilton never finished outside the top two and dominated the latter half of the season, winning all but one of the remaining seven races, including the championship-deciding double points race in Abu Dhabi to secure the championship. Brazil, the one race he didn’t win, still demonstrated his edge over Rosberg on raw pace, but fell short of the win due to costy mistakes in both qualifying and the race.
Hamilton left sizeable pieces for Rosberg to pick up and was clearly pushed hard for the championship, but eventually overcame the hardships to deliver the expected from many.
Nico Rosberg – 317 points/2nd in the Drivers championship
Many expected Hamilton to have a comprehensive edge over Rosberg given that the 2014 chassis would be better suited to the world champion compared to the 2013 chassis. While that may be the case if one looks at the stats at the end of the season, Rosberg proved to be more of a formidable rival of Hamilton’s than many initially thought before this season or if a newcomer were to look at the stats after this season.
The fact their championship battle persisted till the final round in Abu Dhabi is credit to how much of a challenge Rosberg presented to Hamilton, along with leading the championship for most of the campaign and having the impressive consolation of claiming the sport’s first Pole Position trophy by out-qualifying the driver many consider to be currently the fastest over a single lap over the course of the season.
This was a result of having greater composure throughout one lap in Bahrain, Canada, Austria and Silverstone. As much as they owed to Hamilton committing those mistakes, it meant Rosberg’s world champion team-mate felt pressured and had enough speed in hand to trouble Hamilton. Reliability aided Rosberg’s Saturdays further, particularly in Germany and Hungary, and superb damage-limitation to finish 2nd in Canada when both Mercedes were hit with ERS failures and brake problems.
The German profited more from the ugly and controversial moments, when his questioned qualifying incident secured his pole and a cruise to victory in Monaco and stretched his championship lead once more at Spa when the pair tangled on the second lap, something Mercedes faulted Rosberg for. One could say he won ugly in those circumstances, being able to add a major chunk of points to his tally with his team-mate left stranded at times.
He’ll rue not being able to convert that into better showings in the races consistently as he was outmatched by Hamilton when it came down to speed over a race distance, particularly in the second half of the season following the summer break, with Rosberg only standing on the top step once more during that period.
Only three of his 11 pole positions were turned into race wins and even those wins were virtue to racing at a track where it’s virtually impossible to overtake (Monaco), Hamilton starting from afar (Germany) and the latter failing to keep it together when he was on course to leapfrogging Rosberg (Brazil).
Placing them aside, he was edged out in their close scraps in Bahrain and Spain despite being on the faster tyre, failed to make the most of Hamilton’s poor start in Monza, giving away the race lead after locking-up at the first chicane – twice – and had his defences breached by his team-mate when they went wheel-to-wheel with one another in Suzuka and Austin.
Although Rosberg also did suffer the indiginity of having unreliability when in the lead at Silverstone, struggling to get running in Singapore due to an electrical problem and not having all the tools at his disposal to keep his fading championship chances alive in Abu Dhabi when he ended up touring the Yas Marina circuit without ERS and a car that was deteriorating as the race went. He elected to finish the race and see out the season, knowing very well that Hamilton was on his way to be crowned world champion.
Rosberg may well have been the ultimate loser, and it’s clear by looking at his race performances to see why as well as supporting the fact that points aren’t won for qualifying well, but he’s answered enough questions posed by sceptics and can be considered to be among the elite drivers in the sport’s current era.
| Lewis Hamilton | Nico Rosberg |
|
| Qualified ahead | 7 | 11 |
| Average qualifying gap | +0.187s | – |
| Finished race ahead | 10 | 4 |
| Laps spent ahead | 480 | 496 |
The three-pointed star is tipped to be the benchmark once more next season: stability in regulations, continuity in driver lineups, experience as front runners and being heavily involved in a championship battle and most importantly, Red Bull and Ferrari’s efforts to have the engine freeze relaxed came of nothing. Maybe it epitomises the greater political power Mercedes now possess, especially as world champions. As for Hamilton and Rosberg, they are determined to raise their game further and that’ll only serve the team well. We may well be seeing similar scenes witnessed in Sochi and Abu Dhabi for years to come.
