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Mercedes – Right philosophy to win races, but is it good enough to win championships?
Image courtesy: Mercedes
Mercedes entered Formula 1 at a time when many rival manufacturers exited the sport amid the global economic turmoil. After three reasonable years in the bottom half of top field, they got a wake up call from the Daimler board – either win the championship or we are pulling out. That order/warning brought a number of changes to the team, including a new philosophy of multiple heads at the top. This strategy seems to be working until now. They are up from fifth in the championship in 2012 to runners up in 2013. They also doubled their points tally, scoring three more victories, and added eight more pole positions to their name. They’ve also solved the tyre issues which have hurt them since their very existence. Further, they now have highly talented drivers to take the wheel of W04.
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Lewis Hamilton is widely regarded as the fastest driver on the grid in terms of raw pace, and even though he’s had problems with his new employer’s brake system and how it performs in the wet, he performed reasonably well in 2013. Nico Rosberg showed his talent this year by not only matching but also beating his highly regarded teammate on multiple occasions. He’s certainly an underrated driver, who given a good car could do wonders. But the question remains – Can they take the fight and win the prestigious drivers and Constructors title? And there are more questions – can Toto Wolff take those decisions at the pitwall in the same way as Ross Brawn? Can he handle cases like tyregate with same level of calmness as the former Mercedes team principal. Can Mercedes meet people’s expectations of fastest engines? Only time will tell.
How Rosberg fared against his new teammate Lewis Hamilton
Qualifying head to head: Hamilton 11 / Rosberg 8Poles: Hamilton 5 / Rosberg 3?Wins: Hamilton 1 / Rosberg 2?Podiums: Hamilton 5 / Rosberg 4?Race head to head: Hamilton 10 / Rosberg 9Points: Hamilton 189 / Rosberg 171
