Mercedes has been competing to be the second-best team pretty much the whole season. It was clear after a few races that Red Bull had swooped way ahead of the Silver Arrows. As such, the next spot has been in hot contention throughout the races, sometimes with Aston Martin, sometimes with Ferrari, and now even with McLaren.
Mercedes archrivals, however, are the ‘Scarlet Speedsters’ who have been giving them a lot of trouble in every race and trying to fend them off in the championship. Mercedes could never steer clear of Ferrari as the season ends with just six races to go.
Did Mercedes find out the problem holding them back against Ferrari?
Mercedes seem to be falling deeper into the pit as they can’t figure out any method to outsmart the Ferraris. They are pretty much non-existent in Qualifying but manage to climb up the ranks owing to their superior tyre management in comparison to Ferrari.
But, in recent circumstances an alarming development was seen and Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, believes that the team has actually lost it’s race advantage of being less harsher on tyres than Ferrari.
“I think the performance deficit that was there in qualifying, where we have a bit less performance through the fast corners, it’s the same thing that was costing us in the race,” he further commented.
“Ferrari did bring an updated floor. So maybe they’ve moved forward. But I think if we look at some of our recent tracks, that advantage we have with degradation, it’s not as evident now in the season as it was in the earlier races.”
Mercedes and Ferrari F1 rivalry explained
Mercedes is devising ways to try and get the upper edge over their nearest rivals, Ferrari. Aston Martin has pretty much fallen behind after what was undoubtedly an explosive start and currently team upgrades are making the fight for second spot a tough battle.
Ferrari resides on the points table at 285 points and there are six races remaining towards the end of Formula 1 season. Mercedes is still ahead of Ferrari with 305 points, but the difference isn’t huge enough to relax.
Besides, Lewis Hamilton was unimpressed with the W14’s performance in Suzuka circuit and Ferrari cumulatively finished ahead of them with Silver Arrows hot on their tail. The biggest point to note is that unlike Mercedes Ferrari have won a race this season and now with McLaren coming out as a late bloomer the team will have to figure out a way of getting ahead.
With Red Bull’s victory confirmed, which team do you think will finish second? Tell us your predictions in the comments section.
