#2 Ferrari and Red-Bull challenge for Mercedes
Since 2014, Mercedes has dominated F1. They have won 51 of the 59 races and claimed all the championship titles en-route. Fans and Liberty Media, for that matter, will hope that the German outfit gets more competition from Ferrari and Red Bull this year.
On paper, Ferrari had the fastest car during the pre-season and many critics believe that the Italian outfit will finally have a car capable of winning the title. On the other hand, Red-Bull had a subdued testing because of troubles with the Renault powertrain. Yet all the teams were experimenting with the set-ups and sandbagging, so we can’t draw much conclusions. Red Bull will be stronger and Ferrari could be a lot a weaker (like last season when the topped the pre-season charts but didn’t win a GP).
That said, the consensus is that Mercedes will still be the quickest. But that isn’t an issue as long as Red Bull and Ferrari can genuinely challenge for wins and poles. For all the excitement of the title battle between Nico Rosberg and Hamilton in 2016, the championship was quite boring as a whole.
Only two races were won by a non-Mercedes driver and that too after at least one of them faced retirement. And given that overtaking will be harder in 2017, one can only wish that Ferrari and Red Bull will have the outright pace to trouble Toto Wolff’s men.
