Mercedes Reveal Battling a ‘Big Unknown’ in First Championship-Winning F1 Season

In the new episode of the Silver Arrows Story, James took us through the inside story of the championship-winning Mercedes W05. In an attempt to get closer to the fans, the Brackley team started a new series on YouTube in which they take us through the story behind each season.

During the latest episode, Justin took us through the 2014 season. It was the first season of the hybrid era, the preparations of which started back in 2012. It was a dominant season for Mercedes as they claimed their first double championship, but Justin explained the struggles and challenges faced behind the scenes.

“By the summer of 2012, the first engines were on the dino, but this proved to be problematic, and it didn’t run smoothly, mainly with major issues on the MGUH.

“The first car fired up before Christmas in 2013, and by the start of 2014, the power units were stable over a single lap, but over a full race distance, well, that was a big unknown,” he said.

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Mercedes claims the power unit of Wo5 was fragile

According to him, there was a time where the engineers wondered whether the project was possible at all. It was a collective decision then to put in extra hours to meet the deadlines. However, the challenges were still to come.

“On the final day of the tests, some of the customer power units started to fail, and that left us with a lot of work to do ahead of the start of the season.

“These new power units were fragile and you had to do whatever it took just to get through the season,” Justin explained.

There were a lot of struggles in the background, but the team completely dominated the grid. They claimed the championship with 701 points. They won 16 out of the 19 races that year and stood on the podium 31 times.

Mercedes has not looked back since that year and has won the double championship every year since. They recorded the most dominant championship run in the history of the sport last season and are looking to extend the lead further in the coming years.

How long do you think the Mercedes domination will continue?