Top F1 Records that Mercedes can beat

With 4 races done and 17 more to go, there's a familiar frontrunner at the grid. It's that team called the Silver Arrows but one that's made winning a habit and emerging right on top over the others, a common practice.

Today, you don't just see an F1 race; you end up reading this fictional disclaimer but one that conveys the current narrative: watch out, Mercedes ahead.

No other team has dominated the turbo-era of Formula 1 quite like the Toto Wolff-led outfit, a dream for most drivers on the grid and an absolute nemesis for the likes of Ferrari.

Ask both Maurizio Arrivabene and Mattia Binotto for clues. The way Mercedes have gone on to stamp their authority on both Driver and Constructor standings ever since the start of the 2014 F1 season is absolutely dominating and one-sided.

As Mercedes keenly await the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix, perhaps another contest where they'd rule, what are the chances of them succeeding again? As it is, with Bottas leading from Hamilton and the team holding a 64-point lead over second-placed Ferrari, it seems there are slim chances for the others to dominate. Isn't it?

Let's try and figure out some F1 records that Mercedes can still target and own with the side being in the form of its life.

All-time record of 5 straight 1-2 finishes

So far, Mercedes haven't allowed any other team to dominate the proceedings in any manner. They began with a bang with Valtteri Bottas- winless in 2018- winning the season-opener at Australia. This would be followed by Lewis Hamilton emerging right on top at Bahrain, followed by the Briton's sensational win at the 1000th F1 race, at China with Valtteri returning the favour, by winning at Azerbaijan.

Mercedes have, therefore, very clincally dominated the contest emerging with 4 straight 1-2 in 2019, as seen so far.

Come Spain and they could, by virtue of clinching another 1-2 become the only team to equal another where it comes to clinching a first and second from the first five races of a season.

Only Ferrari have been able to clinch a 1-2 from the first five Grands Prix in F1. This was all thanks to the Scuderia's sensational run that lasted from the 1952 Belgian GP to the Dutch GP.

Most 1-2 in a single season

The record for the most number of 1-2 finishes in a single season interestingly belongs to none other than Mercedes.

It was back in 2015 where Mercedes would win twelve 1-2 finishes in a single season.

Lewis Hamilton, who emerged on top in 2015, would make it his second world title having first won a world championship back in 2008, a little over a year where he made his debut.

Moreover, back in 2015, Hamilton was in such great form that he would finish inside the top three in 9 back-to-back races of that season, winning 5 of them.

Now given the form they are in at this point in time, the Silver Arrows having already clinched 4 straight 1-2 finishes so far, they need 8 more such results from 17 impending races to equal the record.

And should they go one better and manage nine (9) 1-2 finishes from 17 opportunities, they would truly be right on top. This will mean that they would have secured 13 overall 1-2 finishes in a single F1 season, a truly unbelievable record.

Most consecutive race wins for a team in a season

Senna and Prost's acclaimed albeit controversial alliance got McLaren all the plaudits in 1988

As discussed previously, by winning at Baku recently Mercedes made it four back-to-back wins in 2019. But the record for the most number of consecutive race wins (by a team) in F1 belongs not to Ferrari or Williams or any other team but to McLaren.

It was back in 1988, with Senna being at his peak and in a truly dismissive form that McLaren bagged 11 straight wins, something none of their on-field opponents at that point in time (including Williams, Ferrari, Lotus-Renault) were able to match or contain.

Back in the 1988 F1 season, Ayrton Senna clinched the first of his three world titles. That said, in what turned out as a truly memorable streak, the inflammable albeit noted partnership of Senna and Prost won 11 races from the very start, perhaps something that the likes of Berger, Piquet, and Mansell may not have expected.

And it was not before the twelfth Grand Prix of that season, won by Gerhard Berger at Italy, that this sublime winning streak would come to an end. Interestingly, Berger won the contest in a Ferrari.

So can Mercedes topple another unique record and go past the enviable achievement that's currently in the grasp of McLaren?

Edited by Kingshuk Kusari