It feels like a long time since Mercedes weren’t the dominant team in Formula 1. From being a middling team since re-entering the sport in 2010, the Silver Arrows got their act together and completely destroyed the competition.
The 2017 and 2018 seasons were a bit more encouraging for the other teams. However, last year, Mercedes simply steamrolled everyone as they won majority of the races while scoring five 1-2 finishes from their superb racers in Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Their six consecutive constructor titles starting from 2014 have matched a similar run by the Prancing Horse back in the early 2000’s, etching themselves into the sport’s history books. Comparisons between Ferrari and Mercedes will be inevitable of course, but that’s another story for next time.
The Silver Arrows were primed to have a great season ahead in 2020 when they were dominant during pre-season testing. However, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, all sporting events including this Formula 1 term had come to a halt.
For now, allow SBOBET to take a look and re-live the Silver Arrows’ historic run over the better part of the decade as we continue to wait for more Formula 1 2020 updates.
Lewis Hamilton’s arrival turned the tides for Mercedes
From the time he made his debut in Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton enjoyed an upward trajectory to being one of the world’s best drivers out there – making him a hot commodity for constructors to sign.
He started his career with McLaren back in 2007 to where he showed glimpses of his potential. The British driver had a record-breaking rookie season where he had the most points in a rookie campaign (109).
However, something needed to change for Hamilton as he couldn’t get over the hump in bringing McLaren to the promise land. So after yet another unsuccessful championship campaign with McLaren in 2012, Hamilton made a surprising announcement that he will join the Silver Arrows the next season.
Lewis Hamilton joined an up-and-coming team back then in Mercedes to form a tandem with his childhood karting teammate, Nico Rosberg. And while their relationship on the circuit wasn’t at all smooth sailing, Hamilton and Rosberg took their differences aside and smashed the competition by winning 51 of 59 available grands prix from 2014 to 2016. Eventually, the Silver Arrows went on to get Valtteri Bottas to drive alongside Lewis Hamilton with Nico Rosberg retiring.
In 2017, Sebastian Vettel posed a huge challenge against Lewis Hamilton as they went back and forth in exchanging the championship lead. However, with Hamilton registering 11 poles positions that season, he managed to overturn his points deficit over Vettel to wrap up the title in Mexico.
It was almost the same story back in 2018 up until Vettel experienced a number of mechanical errors which gave Hamilton another free run at the title.
Other constructors have yet to catch up
With the Silver Arrows taking on all comers, Ferrari and Red Bull were simply left to fight for scraps since the former have scored around an astounding 96-per cent of all available points midway through last season.
Mercedes would ultimately wrap the 2019 season up in Suzuka, Japan, and they capped it all off in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite having no incentive to go all out in that race.
Red Bull are looking to be on their way up in Formula 1. However, they have no other reliable drivers that can contend other than Max Verstappen.
As for Ferrari, they have yet to find a winning formula in terms of their cars on how to keep up with the Silver Arrows. They have their key pieces on Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, but it remains to be seen on how they will bounce back this season.
Can Mercedes make more history moving forward?
The marriage between Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes has been quite harmonious over these past few years. In fact, the British driver indicated that he would like to stay even longer with the Silver Arrows beyond 2020.
Add along to the fact that Valtteri Bottas has been improving every race, the Silver Arrows are primed to continue to assert their dominance in Formula 1 for the forseeable future.
Their Formula 1 2020 odds of achieving their seventh constructor’s title are high as expected and they have a strong claim to being the greatest team of all time.
However, while you can commend the work that they’ve put in these past few years, their dominance has been hurting Formula 1 in terms of parity.
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