Ten years ago, on this very day, the Mercedes-AMG-Petronas F1 team recorded its first race win in 57 years and the rest, as we all know, is history.
What does it take to be immortalized? If one searches for the answer to the question, they will find one similarity no matter what the field. Legacy. A person or a group’s legacy is what defines them. Be it art, science, commerce, or sport. It is what people remember them by. A legacy is not built overnight, or even over the course of a year or two. It takes years, sometimes even decades. That is what separates the great from the legendary. Consistency, adaptability, and endurance. April 15 is a significant date in that respect. It is the date when the foundation was laid for one of the greatest sporting legacies of all time. What began as an ambitious dream is now an absolute royalty in the world of sport. An unwavering dominance that lasted a decade, something that people read about and sit in awe of. Ten years ago, on this very day, the Mercedes-AMG-Petronas F1 team recorded its first race win in 57 years. The rest, as we all know, is history.
It all started at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix. It was the year Mercedes got the official designation of Mercedes-AMG-Petronas. At the time, their driver lineup consisted of a young Nico Rosberg and the seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher. Nobody really had any lofty expectations from the team. Rosberg was, at the time, a relatively new face in F1 and although Schumacher was a racing legend, he was in the twilight years of his career. Thus it would be fair to assume that the racing world was sent into shock when Rosberg not only bagged pole position but also won the 2012 Chinese GP. Many called it a fluke, a stroke of luck, However, few must have predicted that it was the beginning of what would be the most dominant winning streak in the history of Formula One.
F1 ushered in the turbo-hybrid era in 2014. Mercedes had been getting better but they were yet to win the constructors’ championship. By that year, the team had signed Lewis Hamilton as their replacement for Michael Schumacher and Toto Wolff as the new team principal. Things, right off the bat for the Silver Arrows in the new era. That season had 19 races in total and a Mercedes driver stood on the first step of the podium 16 times. The Silver Arrows grabbed pole position in 18 out of the 19 races that year. Hamilton finished first and Rosberg came second that year, and Mercedes had laid down a marker for things to come.
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The 2015 F1 championship was almost deja vu for the German team. 16 wins out of 19, 18 pole positions, Hamilton wins the drivers’ championship with Rosberg in second. People started to see what Toto Wolff was building. A legacy that would stand the test of time. Something Ferrari had done with Schumacher and Red Bull had done with Vettel. Only this time, there would be a kind of dominance that has never been seen before.
In 2016, the team gave one of the greatest title scraps in the history of F1. Teammates Hamilton and Rosberg went tooth and nail for the drivers’ championship in what was termed ‘Battle of the Silver Arrows’. Two years of being in Hamilton’s shadow had a motivating effect on his teammate and the Brit certainly did not expect that kind of a fight from his own teammate. While it might have been interesting for fans of F1, things got toxic in the Mercedes garage. The two teammates were so engrossed in the competition that a sense of resentment arose toward each other. The season ended with Rosberg winning his one and only drivers’ championship title with Hamilton finishing second. Mercedes, of course, won their third consecutive constructors’ championship title.
2017 saw Valterri Bottas, the Flying Finn, announced as Rosberg’s replacement in the Silver Arrows. Rosberg had announced his retirement from the sport after his 2016 championship win. Perhaps opting for Bottas was more of a tactical maneuver for Mercedes. The team wanted to focus on making Hamilton their primary driver and to avoid something like 2016, they opted for a driver who was extremely reliable, but not quite as ambitious. That year, Mercedes won their fourth straight constructors’ championship after winning 11 out of 21 races and Hamilton became the only British driver to have won four F1 drivers’ championships. Bottas finished in third.
By this time, everyone expected Mercedes to become champions before the start of any season. And they delivered on that expectation. It takes a whole lot of winning for fans to safely bet on you becoming the champion, for fans to have that much confidence in you. It takes a completely different level of talent and hard work to deliver on that year in, year out.
2018, 2019, and 2020 saw Mercedes do just that, and the result was always the same no matter what. Drivers’ champion: Lewis Hamilton, constructors’ champion: Mercedes-AMG-Petronas F1 team. Back in 2013, the team had replaced a seven-time world champion in Schumacher with Hamilton. In seven years, they made Hamilton a seven-time world champion.
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The 2021 F1 season was the year things finally changed. Well, Mercedes did win an eighth consecutive constructors’ championship title, but Hamilton failed to capture a record eighth drivers’ championship title. It marked a shift in the F1 landscape, maybe a shift of this unwavering dominance Toto Wolff’s team had on the sport. Also, quite frankly, people were tired of seeing Mercedes win everything year after year. It was also the last season at the team for Bottas whose name will forever be written alongside some of the greats of the team for his six years of reliability and support.
Maybe that dominance has come to an end. Maybe it is time for someone new to climb to the top of the mountain. Who knows when Mercedes will dominate like they used to. The Silver Arrows could monumentally turn the 2022 season around or wait another 50 years for another constructors’ championship win.
Whatever may the future holds, one thing is for certain. Toto Wolff’s Mercedes-AMG-Petronas team will be regarded as arguably the greatest F1 team of all time, for a long time, perhaps forever.