18/04/2019
NEWS STORY
The 2019 Chinese Grand Prix ended virtually the same disposition of forces as did the Grand Prix in Bahrain: the pilots from Mercedes occupied the first two positions while the Ferrari driver had to be content with the third spot.
There is no stopping Mercedes
The first big race of the year, the Rolex Australian Grand Prix, also saw the Mercedes duo grace the first and the second spots - a sure sign of the emerging domination in the particular sport.
Last time when Formula 1 witnessed such a confident display was way back in 1992 when Williams-Renault also obtained similar success in three consecutive races. And to Mercedes's credit, they didn't have as much race cars present on the track as Williams did back in the day.
Perhaps, soon it would be necessary to launch new sports betting sites where punters will bet only on whether or not some team will be able to knock Mercedes from the pedestal.
However, probably the main reason behind such an overwhelming success of AMG Petronas Motorsport is that they are lucky to have Lewis Hamilton on their roster, arguably the finest F1 driver of all time.
Hamilton was the main reason for his team's impressive start of the year since it was he who was capable of taking on Ferrari in Bahrain, which had a substantial advantage in terms of speed, whilst Valtteri Bottas has proven to be virtually useless in that race.
As for Scuderia, Charles Leclerc was at his best during that race but the problems with power unit had taken their toll, allowing Mercedes to snatch a double mainly thanks to the efforts put in by Lewis Hamilton.
But Bottas has been displaying significant progress, which he displayed in the qualification races, so now it seems that the only problem that Toto Wolff, and other principals of Mercedes team have to resolve, concerns the maintenance of such a splendid racing form.
Continuing their dominance in this year's Formula 1 World Championship should not be hard for the AMG team since their closest rivals have a host of questions that needs to be addressed.
Ferrari's main challenges
Reliability and team tactics seem to be the two main obstacles that impede Ferrari from climbing farther than the 3rd place. The Australian Grand Prix revealed the unexpected loss in speed showings with regard to the winter pre-season test races. The rumors had been circling around the racing community that Ferrari had deliberately downgraded the speed capacity of their racing cars due to the engine overheating.
Afterward, Leclerc had the mentioned difficulties with the power unit in Bahrain which may have also caused him to lose the substantial part of the second test. Certainly, Ferrari denies having any issues with the cooling systems, but it is evident that the insufficient reliability of their racing car presents the major issue which had already cost them the premium places in the first three rounds of this year.
The team tactics, which shows more and more favoritism to Sebastian Vettel over the young and promising Leclerc, had already raised many eyebrows of both racing experts and fans. However, this issue will be touched upon a bit later, but there is no denying the fact that the Scuderia bosses just keep making wrong calls when sending the drivers onto the track.
For instance, during the qualification rounds in China, Vettel received a call to the box way too late which caused him to make an extra effort to outdo the Haas team prior to the start of the last lap whilst Mercedes did everything in a timely manner.
Contrarily, the Melbourne race was the showing of Ferrari's unnecessary haste to bring Vettel into the race that led to him losing the position to Verstappen.
During the Grand Prix in China, the management had deliberately asked Leclerc to yield his seat to Vettel though both drivers have been on the same level in terms of points. This move didn't bring any benefits to Ferrari but surely infuriated the fans around the globe who may perceive it as a sort of discrimination of the young Monegasque's talent.
Staying true to their doubtful course
However, this is just Ferrari adhering to its policy which was declared by Mattia Binotto before the start of this year's World Championship. He didn't try to conceal Scuderia's intention to 'go all-in' with Vettel, but, as the current situation shows, this stubbornness has already backfired at the Italian team.
Evidently, there is no practical logic in playing the game of favoritism when one has such an immensely strong opponent as the current Mercedes team. Besides, the Red Bull Racing team is breathing down Scuderia's neck.
Even Lewis Hamilton has expressed his view on this topic. In one of the latest interviews to ESPN, the start driver said that there is not much difference between Mercedes and Ferrari in terms of technical capabilities. It is the fact that Ferrari is not operating as 'faultlessly' as before that allows AMG Mercedes to maintain the edge over the Italians.