Mercedes accept their continued domination in Formula 1 is likely unpopular after crushing the competition in British Grand Prix qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton claimed pole by a full second over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in third on Saturday at Silverstone and the expectation is he and Valtteri Bottas will run off into the distance on Sunday.
If so, it will mean the team has claimed pole and victory at all four races to start 2020, as they march towards a seventh successive double championship success.
But commenting on Mercedes’ historic run of domination, team boss Toto Wolff says it’s embedded by learning the mistakes of past teams in similar situations.
“I think when you look at sports teams and their success, when it kind of tails off and goes, that’s when you start to get complacent,” he told UK broadcaster Channel 4.
“Also that happens when you started taking things for granted or when the team dissipates, but we are all aligned, we have the same values and objectives, and we want to stay together.
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“But this is no guarantee for future [success],” the Austrian insisted.
“I guess with this kind of performance we are not making a lot of new friends, so we are getting attacks from every front, everything is being questioned, and that’s another fight we need to sustain.
“But I guess you would rather have that then people having pity for you.”
Because of the considerable pace advantage Mercedes currently has, and the limitations on development implemented by F1 due to Covid-19, however, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko now believes any championship bid is unlikely before 2022.
“Yes, I think so because you can’t change much even in 2021,” he told Dutch publication De Telegraaf. “That doesn’t make it easy to catch Mercedes.
“Adrian Newey is currently getting to the bottom of it, but the horsepower that Mercedes found over the winter is another story. We’re all getting nervous.”
Even Daniel Ricciardo, who has seen his chances of success in F1 limited by the domination of the German brand, admits their continued domination is becoming too much.
“I feel like I’ve always been on the side of taking my hat off to them and putting the [onus] on everyone else to find what they’re doing and to work a little harder or in another direction,” he was quoted by RaceFans.
“Even the DAS system, I think, when I saw that in winter testing, I was very complimentary because they have the ability to be the most complacent team on the grid yet I feel they are the least complacent. This is the bar that they’ve set and they keep moving.
“So it’s admirable, but it’s frustrating as competitors and I really hope for everyone, for all the teams, it’s just more fuel for the fire and [they’ll] just dig a little deeper to find some answers.
“I won’t lie, it still is frustrating to see such performance, but all you can do is take your hat off to them, really. You can’t be bitter, they are doing a great job.”
