Mercedes admit they face a “Mount Everest-sized” challenge to rein in Red Bull next year after Max Verstappen’s comfortable win at the season finale in Abu Dhabi completed the most dominant year in Formula One history.
Verstappen ultimately cruised to his 19th win in 22 races beneath the lights at Yas Marina, meaning the Milton Keynes-based team won an extraordinary 21 out of 22 races in total. Only Singapore eluded them.
And while Mercedes did in the end manage to beat Ferrari to second spot in the constructors’ championship, thanks to George Russell’s third place and Lewis Hamilton’s ninth, it was a gloomy Hamilton who faced the media afterwards.
“Not great,” the seven-time world champion admitted when asked how he felt at the end of a second-consecutive winless year. “I just finished ninth. I’ve had two really bad races [in a row]. Red Bull won by 17 seconds and haven’t touched [developed] their car since August or July. So you can pretty much guess where they’re going to be next year…”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said Hamilton was simply speaking from the heart at the end of what was a “bad weekend” from the 38-year-old’s perspective. But the Austrian added that he was still “the greatest driver in the world”, and still capable of fighting for that record eighth world title, if only the team could give him a car capable of doing so.
Mercedes decided in April to rip up their current car concept and start building something fundamentally different for next year. There are risks attached to that, but Wolff said it was a necessary gamble if the team were to stand any chance of catching Red Bull.
“Red Bull started the [current set of] regulations last season with a massive advantage and they have been able to maintain it,” he explained. “We have a lot of respect for their achievement, from the engineering side, and the driver side, and beating them under these regulations [which last until 2026] is against the odds. That is clear.
“But we have seen with McLaren, where an update unlocked a second of time, there is a key to unlocking dramatically more performance.
“We had to be honest that this car was never going to be good enough to fight for a world championship. We took the decision in April to go back to the drawing board and come up with something new next year. But Mount Everest is in front of us.
“We are changing the concept. We are completely moving away from how we lay out the chassis, the weight distribution, the airflow, literally every component has been changed because only by doing that do we have a chance [of beating Red Bull].
“You could get it wrong also. Everything is possible. There is always scepticism. But that is the mentality in the team that pushes us forward, to never give up.”
Wolff added that beating Ferrari to second place in the constructors’ championship, with the extra $10 million in prize money that that entailed, had left him with a “bittersweet” feeling.
Their fight provided the only real drama of what was a pretty uneventful season finale. Mercedes had begun the day just four points ahead of Ferrari in the standings, and the two teams swapped positions multiple times during the course of the race as their drivers moved up and down the field.
Eventually, with his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz out of the points, and knowing his own second place would not be enough, Charles Leclerc tried something clever. He allowed Red Bull’s third-placed Sergio Perez to pass him on the final lap, knowing the Mexican had to serve a five-second penalty post-race.
Leclerc had worked out that if he could finish within five seconds of Perez, and Russell, behind him, could not, then Ferrari and Mercedes would finish level on points, with Ferrari claiming second on countback as they actually won a race this season.
In the end, it was not enough. Leclerc let Perez past but then declined to hold Russell up, meaning they both finished within five seconds of the Mexican. “Charles only half-did the job,” Horner noted.
Wolff was thankful for Leclerc’s good sportsmanship. “He could have put the handbrake on,” the Austrian admitted. “It shows the character of the driver.”
Behind them, McLaren, for whom Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished fifth and sixth respectively, took fourth in the constructors ahead of Aston Martin. Those two teams, as well as Mercedes and Ferrari, will hope they can close the gap to Red Bull over the winter. But as Wolff admitted, the odds are against them.
“We must leave no stone unturned,” he concluded. “As tough as it is, it is also a great opportunity to come back and aim for the stars.