In the chaotic 2023 Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton secured the team’s first podium finish of the season, finishing in second place after a race that was interrupted by three red flags, a safety car, and a virtual safety car. Hamilton had a good start along with his teammate George Russell, with both drivers passing polesitter Max Verstappen and running one-two in the opening stages. However, Russell’s race was ruined by a red flag after his pit stop, which caused a power unit failure that forced him to retire on lap 17.

Despite the setback, Hamilton was able to manage his tyres and finish in second place, fighting with the Aston Martins despite the team’s lack of performance. The team’s Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin, noted that the team had made progress with the car’s setup, and they hope to take some of that learning into the upcoming races. The race was a mixed bag for the team, but there were positive signs of improvement, and they remain optimistic about closing the gap with the leaders.

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, Großer Preis von Australien 2023. Lewis Hamilton George Russell
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, 2023 Australian GP. Lewis Hamilton George Russell

Press Release
Apr 2, 2023 – Melbourne

A chaotic Australian Grand Prix saw Lewis Hamilton claim the Team’s first podium finish of the season

• Lewis Hamilton finished second whilst George Russell retired from the 2023 Australian Grand Prix.
• On a wild afternoon in Melbourne, the race was interrupted by three red flag periods, a new F1 record, one Safety Car and one Virtual Safety Car.
• A strong getaway at the initial start saw both George and Lewis pass polesitter Max Verstappen and running one-two in the opening stages.
• George pitted from the lead on lap 7 under the Safety Car; the red flag was thrown only a lap later though, comprising his strategy. Lewis therefore took the subsequent standing start in first having switched to the hard tyre under the red flag.
• George quickly began his recovery, making up three positions and running fourth when a Power Unit failure ended his race on lap 17. Lewis, having been passed by Verstappen, was running second ahead of Fernando Alonso and managing his tyres to the end.
• With a handful of laps remaining, a second red flag led to yet another standing start. Lewis kept out of trouble and, despite a third red flag and rolling start procedure after a crash-filled restart, took the chequered flag in second place.

Lewis Hamilton

To get a podium today is amazing; I definitely didn’t expect to be second this weekend, so I am super grateful. Considering we’re down on performance, to be fighting with the Aston Martins is amazing for us at this point in the season. We’ve just got to keep fighting. A big thank you to all the people back at the factory. We can close that gap; it’s going to be tough but not impossible.

It was very unlucky for George today. Our reliability has generally been pretty good so that was unfortunate. Finally, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone here in Melbourne and Australia. I’ve had the best week here and this town continues to put on a great show.

George Russell

We did everything right this weekend. We had a great Qualifying yesterday and today, the start was perfect. We managed the first stint well and I could have extended it quite a lot more. I’ve felt comfortable and strong in the car on all three days. I see no reason why we couldn’t have fought for victory today, so it’s disappointing. As soon as I came through the high-speed turn 10, I felt something go. Three corners later, I was stopped. When it’s not your day, it’s not your day.

We’ve still got a lot of work to do to catch Red Bull, but we can take the positives from this weekend. Every time we’ve taken to the track, we couldn’t have done any more. We maximised everything and I’m proud of the job that we have done.

Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO

We had strong pace today and it was really close with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. That is good news for us, and I think we have made a step forward this weekend, both on one-lap and race pace. We maximised what we have, and we need to now comb through the data and continue to learn about the car. This will help bring the upgrade packages and that will be the key in challenging the leaders more often.

It was unfortunate with George; he had a great stop from the lead and changed onto the hard tyre. It was absolutely the right call, and he would have been very much at the front. With the red flag his race was not so good anymore. He still could have made it to the front though, so he was unfortunate to have a Power Unit failure.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It’s great to get the first podium of the year with Lewis, but it was a day of mixed fortunes for the team. Lewis drove a difficult race well and had to find a fine balance between tyre management and defending. George had put together a strong weekend and was unfortunate that the Safety Car became a red flag. Things then got worse with the Power Unit issue. The pace of the car has been better than at the first two races; we’ve made some changes to the setup for the circuit but hopefully we can take some of that learning into the upcoming races.

Formula 1 enthusiasts are eagerly anticipating the start of the 2023 season, which will see some exciting changes in the sport. One of the most anticipated events in the lead-up to the season is pre-season testing, which is held in Bahrain this year. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas team is one of the leading teams in the sport, having won the Constructors’ Championship for eight consecutive years from 2014 to 2021. In this article, we will take a closer look at the team’s pre-season testing in Bahrain and what we can expect from them in the upcoming season.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Team’s First Impressions

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas team arrived in Bahrain with their new car, the W14, which has been the focus of intense development and testing over the last few months. The team was excited to get the car out on track and test its capabilities in real-world conditions. The first day of testing was challenging, with cold and greasy conditions making it difficult for the drivers to get a feel for the car.

George Russell, who will be driving for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team for the first time this season, was upbeat about the team’s progress. “It’s great to get on track with the W14. It was very cold and greasy out there today, but the car ran smoothly, and we completed all the laps we are permitted to do. We know pre-season testing in Bahrain will be the first real test of the car. Nevertheless, it looks great out on circuit and the feeling from within the car is so far, so good.”

Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion and Mercedes-AMG Petronas team’s lead driver, was also positive about the team’s progress. “It has been great to get up and running with the W14. It is always a much-anticipated moment for everyone at the factory that has been working so hard; I’m incredibly grateful for all the effort that has gone in. The day has been smooth; we got through a good programme, and we’ve come away with some useful findings. I generally felt comfortable in the car and I’m excited to get going in Bahrain.”

Andrew Shovlin, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team’s chief race engineer, was pleased with the team’s performance on the first day of testing. “We’ve had a solid start to the programme for W14. Conditions weren’t great for filming or running but we completed the permitted 100km without any issues, and both drivers have been able to give us a good assessment of their first impressions of the car. Bahrain will be very different to a cold, wet Silverstone but everything seems to be working well. Hopefully we can hit the ground running next week and maximise the three days of pre-season testing that we have.”

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Team’s Expectations for the Season

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas team is one of the most successful teams in Formula 1 history, having won numerous championships over the years. The team is expected to be a strong contender for the championship once again this season, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell behind the wheel of the W14.

The team has undergone significant changes in the lead-up to the season, with the departure of team principal Toto Wolff and the arrival of new technical director James Allison. However, the team remains confident in their ability to compete at the highest level.

Lewis Hamilton, who has been with the team since 2013, is looking forward to the new season and is determined to add to his seven world championship titles.

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, Launch, Silverstone, 2023, Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E PERFORMANCE, Lewis Hamilton

Lewis claims an historic 100^th F1 career victory for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team in a pulsating Russian Grand Prix

• A hard-fought victory in Russia saw Lewis extend his F1 victory record to achieve the momentous milestone of 100 career victories in the highest echelon of motorsport.
• Lewis had dropped three places on the opening lap, keeping his nose clean to navigate a very bunched field before settling into the race and preserving his tyres for an extended stint on the Medium, eventually moving up to fourth.
• Lewis gained places after the first round of pit-stops and worked his way to a two-way battle for the lead with NOR. With rain forecast to arrive for the final few laps, Lewis found it difficult to pass the fellow Brit in the dry.
• When the rain finally arrived, the team pitted Valtteri for an early switch to the Intermediate tyres. Lewis joined him soon after, in contrast to NOR who stayed out and struggled badly in the worsening conditions.
• Valtteri took full advantage of the late rain and his early switch to Inters saw him make a number of solid passes to bring the W12 home in P5, securing vital points as the team extended its lead in the Constructors’ Championship.
• Lewis, meanwhile, safely guided the W12 home in increasingly heavy rain to take the chequered flag in P1.
• Today marks Lewis’s 79^th victory with the Mercedes works team, extending its100% win record in Russia which began with victories for Mercedes in 1913 and 1914.
• In claiming 25 points today, Lewis surpassed 4000 points in F1, the first driver to reach that milestone.
• Lewis Hamilton (246.5 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship from Max Verstappen (244.5), while Valtteri is in third position (151 points).
• The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team (397.5 points) lead Red Bull (364.5 points) by 33 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

2021 Russian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton

Wow… 100! It’s taken a long time and I wasn’t even sure the 100th would come! Going to bed last night I wasn’t the happiest with the job I did yesterday. I watched the replay over and over again; they were subtle mistakes but I was so determined to put things right when I woke up this morning.

Today was tough – I lost a lot of ground at the start, just trying to stay out of trouble. I was patient and at the end, when the rain came, I didn’t want to let Lando go by boxing. Of course I didn’t know what the rain was doing, it was just my feeling but I’m incredibly grateful to the strategy team for the job they did today. Getting anywhere near 100 victories wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of the men and women here and back at the factory, I’m so grateful to them – it just feels so special.

Lando did an amazing job today, he had incredible pace and he’s doing such a great job for McLaren. It was bittersweet to see my old team ahead, they’re doing so well powered by Mercedes and it’s good to see them united again. Max did a good job to come up from second to last, the battle continues and we know we need to be on top form over the remaining races.

2021 Russian Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas

Firstly, congrats to Lewis on the win and his 100th victory. From my side, it was a difficult race and not an easy day, but the situation at the end with the rain saved it for me. Before that, I was struggling to progress through the field. It was much more difficult than I thought it would be, because I just couldn’t follow through the corners – I was getting big understeer. I couldn’t carry the speed and get close enough to overtake, and other cars were finding it easier to follow closely. Then the rain arrived, I wanted to stop one lap earlier but the team wasn’t quite ready, but we were still one of the first cars to stop, which was good. I managed to climb up the order and score some good points, which is positive after a tricky day.

Toto Wolff

Those final few laps were so intense, but we managed to make the right calls and lead the field across the finish line. A big congratulations to Lewis on his 100th win. What we are witnessing is just mind-blowing. It’ll be talked about for the next few days, but it’ll only be years down the line when we realise that we’ve all been part of this journey. A journey no other driver in F1 history has done so far. That’s beyond race wins and championship victories, that is the very human part of all this.

In terms of the race, I think it would have been difficult to get past Norris in the dry, as Lewis struggled to overtake Ricciardo even with DRS. Norris managed the race very well, who knows what would have happened if the rain hadn’t arrived, but it did. This kind of decision is hugely difficult, it started to drizzle on half of the circuit, but we made the call and it paid off. We’d made the call a little bit earlier with Valtteri, and that brought him into contention after a challenging race and he did a great job to move up the field and into the top five. A big well done to the entire team for all their work and efforts, it’s been a little while since we had a race victory but I know results like this will fire everyone up even more to keep pushing until the end of the season.

2021 Russian Grand Prix

Andrew Shovlin

Congratulations to Lewis on his 100th win, it’s an incredible achievement and hopefully he can find time over the next few days to enjoy it. Obviously the end of the race was quite exciting, the team stayed calm and reacted well to the conditions and ultimately that’s what gave us the win. Prior to the rain it was quite a tough race, Lewis lost places at the start after getting boxed in at turn 2 and Valtteri had a good start but struggled to make progress through the traffic, especially when stuck in a DRS train. We’d managed to get Lewis up to second and it would have been a straight fight with Lando in the dry but we were actually hoping for the rain as it felt like that would be our best chance of making it to the top step. Valtteri was further back at the time it started so we decided to switch to intermediates early and that paid off, gaining some good points in the process. Overall, a solid team performance and it’s put us back in front in both championships so we’re happy with that but Max covered very well today from a PU penalty, finishing just one place behind, so we know we need to be at our very best in the coming races to have a chance of bringing the Championships home.

Everyone has their own opinion on the events of Silverstone, and it was a very polarising incident. However, the most important thing is that Max is OK. It’s never nice to see a car crashing, particularly at such high speeds and at a corner like that, so we’re glad he emerged from the accident unscathed.

The last race weekend was a very entertaining one for the fans and we had a full-capacity crowd in the stands, which hasn’t happened for quite some time. We could feel their energy. That made the weekend incredibly special, and obviously they had the chance to watch a very dramatic race, as did everyone else at home.

For us, it was an encouraging weekend with the pace of the car, the small upgrades we introduced worked well and we scored some big points, so we’re looking to keep that momentum going.

Lewis was on incredible form at Silverstone with a brilliant recovery drive in front of his home crowd after the penalty. It was also a strong weekend for Valtteri too with some great teamwork and good pace, which has closed the margin in both Championships.

We know how fine the margins are this season and how the advantage is swaying from one team to the other at each race. Us and Red Bull looked very closely matched at Silverstone and Ferrari were very quick, and now the battle moves onto the next round and a very different track.

The Hungaroring is a high-downforce, tight and twisty circuit. Almost like a large version of a go-kart track. Hungary will therefore be a different beast compared to the last race, and it is a track that will likely suit our competitors more, but we’ll give it all we’ve got.

It’s been a long and intense first half of the season and we’re almost at the summer break. We want to ensure we head into the shutdown on the right foot, before we get the chance to recharge, take stock of everything that’s happened so far and then come back fighting in the second half of the season.

Video Feature: F1 Car Development

This week, we’re diving into the topic of how to upgrade a Formula One car – whether that’s during a normal season, or the unusual 2021 season, where a number of important factors have changed the development race.

Our F1 Car Development video features interviews with John Owen (Chief Designer), Mike Elliott (Technical Director) and Lewis Hamilton (driver of Car No.44).

Featured: How Do Teams Develop an F1 Car?

How do teams decide what to upgrade on their cars?

As with most things in Formula One, planning and detail are everything. When developing a car and deciding what to update, teams first have to put together a plan of what needs to be worked on – where are the strengths we can maximise further and where are the weaknesses that we can improve?

When choosing an upgrade, you must focus on the areas that are going to produce the most performance in the quickest timeframe, and also find the balance between where you go looking and the size of the project you take on.

As a rule of thumb, the bigger the part, the longer it is going to take to design, manufacture and bring to the track. Teams also have to consider how critical a part is to the structure of the car. A crucial structural part such as the front and rear wings, which are highly loaded, have to be put through rigorous tests to meet strict safety regulations, so those components tend to be defined and decided on pretty early.

Next up, when looking at aerodynamics, teams focus their attention on the floor and diffuser, which are big downforce generators and have long lead times. And then it’s about looking into the components that are smaller and quicker to make but bring a lot of performance, such as brake ducts, bargeboards and engine covers.

Once the areas of focus have been defined, the general process of bringing an upgrade to the track will depend on the component, but whether it’s an internal or external part, they all need to be designed and tested, before the decision is made to move forward with the concept or find another solution.

If we take an aero part as an example, the Aerodynamics department will come up with a range of concepts and solutions, which will then be designed and tested in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The best options will be turned into components for the Wind Tunnel model, where they’ll be trialled in the Tunnel, before the final solution is given the green light to be manufactured and brought to the track. This entire process can take several weeks, which is why planning the upgrades and creating a solid development timeline is so important.

Many of the innovative designs can’t be seen on TV, but instead lie under the bodywork of the car, such as the gearbox or cooling systems. Often, what we find here are lots of small things, which are easy to implement and can be introduced between the main upgrades.

One of the most interesting internal areas to upgrade is the engine, as all the action happens in the combustion chambers. Engineers can create and bring numerous updates to the engine, but from the outside, it’s hardly noticeable.

That was true for the DAS steering system that we developed for 2020, which was only visible because the drivers moved the steering wheel backwards and forwards, bringing to life an innovation that would have otherwise been invisible to the outside world.

What happens to the concepts that don’t make the cut?

What everyone sees being brought to the track is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to upgrades. There can be hundreds and thousands of different solutions that are thought up in the design process, but not all of those will be put through testing – for example with aero components, going through CFD.

Once the virtual testing has taken place, only a handful of concepts will be brought to the Wind Tunnel to get a more realistic and accurate feel for how they will react to the airflow around the car. And from those designs, just one will be brought to the track as part of the upgrade package.

Every part has a hundred brothers and sisters that went with it, to try and find the best solution, with numerous people involved and hours and hours of work going into making every little detail count. Most of those brothers and sisters will never see the light of day, but that’s not to say they are completely wasted. Indeed, they create important learnings and bring inspiration for the next solutions – one of which will eventually make it to the track. Whether the part is internal or external, it’s all about trial and error, that’s how you improve and find the right direction.

How is upgrading a car different in 2021?

Upgrading a car in 2021 is not like any season that has come before, due to several factors. The first is the homologation regulations, which limit the parts of the car we can change. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the new regulations to be pushed back to 2022, and in a bid to save costs, the teams agreed to homologate – effectively carry over – large parts of the car.

Teams have only been able to change two tokens worth of structural parts, and the aerodynamic components – a considerable change from the usual rhythm of the development race across a normal season. On top of that, the Power Unit rules were also changed, with only one upgrade now permitted. Once that upgrade is introduced, the only changes to be made are for structural and reliability reasons.

The second reason why upgrading a car in 2021 is so different is the aero testing restrictions. Those restrictions are more severe the quicker the car you had in the previous season. As last year’s Championship winner, we get the fewest CFD and Wind Tunnel runs, so that is something we have to factor in, really ensuring we get the most out of every CFD or Tunnel session.

The third factor is the cost cap, which means we have to think even more carefully about where we use our resources to make the most of every opportunity we can. And all of this while trying to find the right balance between the 2021 car and the fourth reason… the 2022 regulation change.

This is a huge regulation change, not only in the rules themselves but also in how the rules are written. It’s a huge amount of work and careful decisions therefore need to be made to maximise the 2021 season while also giving the 2022 car the attention it deserves. Finding that balance is a familiar challenge from season to season but as we enter a whole new era of technical regulations, that challenge is much more intense.

What’s it like for the driver when an upgrade is brought to the car?

The drivers are constantly updated on the development progress of the car, so they know when things are coming, what to look out for and what feedback we’d like from them. Getting correlation between the Wind Tunnel and the real world is incredibly difficult, so the direct feedback we get from the driver is really useful for us to see how an upgrade has changed the car’s performance and balance.

“The first time you get on the track, it is really difficult to feel the differences in the car because you end up just going faster,” said Lewis Hamilton. “It can be disguised in the balance. The areas that you do often notice is if the rear is more stable, so if you get more rear downforce, that is often the one that you perhaps notice the most.

“It’s not always easy to feel it, but there is a huge amount of work that goes into bringing an upgrade to track – so much detail, so much design and then the build process. When you go to the factory and you see everyone at their workstations, head down, focussed, determined, staying overtime to get projects finished, it’s amazing. And then you see the ideas that get turned into CAD drawings, and then it becomes a physical piece – it is mind-blowing to see.

“The creative genius of all these individuals is super inspiring. It gets you excited, we’ve got new bits coming or there might be something that we’ve wanted for some time, but it takes months to build and when you finally get it, and you put it on the car, and you can feel the difference, it’s amazing.”

Stat Attack: Hungary and Beyond

The motorsport season is gradually starting to take shape: Formula 1 fans are eagerly awaiting the season opener, Formula E faces new challenges in Mexico, and the attention of the GT world is drawn “down under”.

• News from the Mercedes-AMG Motorsport teams
• Social media news: What’s new online?

Mercedes-AMG GT3 #999, Mercedes-AMG Team GruppeM Racing

News snippets

The countdown has started: There are only two and a half weeks to go until the 2020 Formula 1 Mercedes takes to the track. On February 14, the new car to be driven by Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will make its first outing during the shakedown at the Silverstone International Circuit, 30 days before Australia hosts the season opener of the premier class. From the shakedown, the team will proceed directly to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain for the first of two test weeks, namely 19 – 21 February and 26 – 28 February, when all of the Formula 1 teams have the opportunity to gauge the performance of their new cars.

New track layout: It’s not long now to the fourth round of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship. Ahead of the Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team’s departure for Mexico, the local officials announced the new track layout for the 2020 CBMM Niobium Mexico City E-Prix. The city, which is hosting the race for the fourth time this year, has extended the circuit by an additional 513 metres. The new configuration of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is 2.606 kilometres in length and features a mix of long straights with a tight section through a stadium-like arena. The changes involve the removal of two chicanes and the insertion of a new sector. At an altitude of 2,500 metres above sea level, Mexico City is the highest venue of the entire season.

Bathurst 12 Hour and the Australian debut of the Mercedes-AMG GT4: The twelve-hour IGTC curtain-raiser at Bathurst (31 January – 2 February) will mark a special occasion for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport as, for the first time in the history of the Customer Racing Programme, the Mercedes-AMG GT4 will be competing on the Australian continent. The car entered by Griffith Corporation (#19) will be driven by Mark Griffith (AUS), Dirk Müller (GER) and an interesting newcomer: Harrison Newey (GBR), the son of the highly respected veteran Formula 1 engineer Adrian Newey won the Asian Le Mans Series in the 2017/18 season and, despite his young age, already has a wealth of experience – only last weekend, the 21-year-old won the LMP2 class in the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

The number 19 Mercedes-AMG GT4 joins the customary top-class Mercedes-AMG Motorsport IGTC line-up in this year’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour. There will be no fewer than three teams with extensive factory support fielding the new Mercedes-AMG GT3. The number 888 car of Mercedes-AMG Team Triple Eight Race Engineering will be driven by Jamie Whincup (AUS), Bathurst lap record holder Shane van Gisbergen (NZL) and last year’s IGTC runner-up Maximilian Götz (GER). Mercedes-AMG Team Craft-Bamboo BLACK FALCON (#77) will be sending a no less distinguished trio out onto the track in the shape of Yelmer Buurman (NED), Maro Engel (GER) and Luca Stolz (GER). The third of the three Mercedes-AMG teams, GruppeM Racing, also have high hopes going into the race on the Mount Panorama circuit. Their number 999 car will be driven by Maximilian Buhk (GER) and Raffaele Marciello (ITA), who finished third and fourth in the drivers’ championship at the end of the last IGTC season, together with Felipe Fraga (BRA).

Also joining the line-up will be three GT3 Customer Racing cars. In the number 46 Black Falcon will be Patrick Assenheimer (GER), Sergey Afanasyev (RUS) and Michele Beretta (ITA) whose main focus will be on the Silver Cup. Going into action for SunEnergy1 Racing (#75) are Dominik Baumann, Martin Konrad (both AUT), David Reynolds (AUS) and 2018 IGTC Bronze Category Champion Kenny Habul (AUS). Meanwhile, Nick Foster, Anton de Pasquale, Sam Shahin and Yasser Shahin (all AUS) in the number 777 car fielded by Triple Eight Race Engineering will be competing in the Pro-Am category. Mercedes-AMG will also provide the official safety car for the endurance event for the sixth year in succession.

The Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour starts at 05:45 local time on Sunday 2 February (Saturday, 18:45 GMT) just before sunrise in New South Wales.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas driver Lewis Hamilton took home his sixth Formula 1 world title on Sunday by finishing second at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. The finish earned Hamilton enough points to block out the next closest driver, his teammate, Valtteri Bottas, from contesting the driver’s championship through the season finale at Yas Marina.

Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2019. Lewis Hamilton Valtteri Bottas

• Lewis finished the race in P2 after starting from P5 on the grid, securing his sixth World Championship title and the team’s ninth 1-2 of the 2019 season
• Valtteri raced to his seventh victory in Formula One, his fourth of the 2019 season and first at the Circuit of the Americas
• Today’s result marks the eighth podium for Lewis at the United States Grand Prix, breaking Michael Schumacher’s record for most podiums at the race
• Today’s result also marks the 25^th race led for Valtteri
• Lewis (381 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 67 points from Valtteri (314 points) in P2 – an unassailable lead in the Drivers’ Championship
• Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (695 points) leads Ferrari (479 points) by 216 points in the Constructors’ Championship
• James Allison, Technical Director, accepted the Constructors’ trophy on behalf of the team

Valtteri Bottas

First of all huge congratulations to Lewis – six championships is an impressive achievement! He had a strong season and he deserves the title, he was better overall. Lewis is a tough opponent, he has very few weaknesses, makes almost no mistakes and drives very consistently. But I’ve been gaining some good momentum, so I’m looking forward to another close fight with him next year. It’s been a really good weekend for me and the team. I struggled at this track in previous years, so it was great to cross the line in first place. It was not an easy race; I had a strong start and a good first stint, but we had to switch to a two-stop to cover Max and I was a bit worried that Lewis on the one-stop might be on the better strategy. It was a proper fight and quite a bit of fun; I had to really push, but my pace was strong and I managed to catch Lewis towards the end. We had a good battle on track and I passed him to secure the win. It feels really good to win the race like that when you have to really fight for it.

Lewis Hamilton

It’s hard to explain what I’m feeling right now, to be honest. Cloud nine doesn’t even get close, it’s somewhere far above that. It’s been the hardest year I can remember; it’s been so challenging, going through the ups and downs, so right now I’m just so full of emotion, it’s overwhelming. I feel truly humbled, and really, really grateful to everyone back at the factories, the entire Daimler family and everyone at PETRONAS – everyone who has worked so hard to enable us to do what we do and achieve this. It’s such a privilege and honour to work for this team, to be able to go out there and have the platform to put in performances like today. And Niki, I miss him so much. Today, he’d have taken his cap off. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without Niki, he’s here with us in spirit. I saw my parents right after the race and seeing my dad’s smile, it says it all. My family have supported me since day one, they worked so hard for me to be here today. I’m so glad they could all come out here, together. Yesterday was a difficult day and today I just wanted to recover and deliver a one-two for the team. Valtteri did a fantastic job, so huge congratulations to him.

Toto Wolff

I’m so proud of everyone – what an incredible achievement! There’s a massive amount of work behind the scenes to secure a result like this, where one driver claims the Championship and the other one wins the race. A massive thank you to everyone who contributed to this – here at the track, back at home in Brackley and Brixworth, at Daimler in Stuttgart and at PETRONAS in Kuala Lumpur. Taking his sixth drivers’ title is a truly remarkable and special achievement. You can see how motivated Lewis still is, he wants to win every race and get the best result possible. It’s not been an easy year, with tough competition and the loss of Niki. I’d like to think Niki’s looking down on us, tipping his cap after today’s result. Valtteri drove an absolutely faultless race today, he has been on incredible form all weekend and he thoroughly deserved the victory. Lewis fought back in style and put in a great drive to go from P5 to P2.

James Allison

The amount of effort it takes to win a championship is huge, so when it all comes to the final fruition, you just swell up with great, great pleasure – and to have the cherry on the cake of standing on that podium looking out on our team and everybody in the crowd was fantastic. It’s brilliant to be part of this team – it makes you really keen to work, it takes you way above and beyond what you would normally give because you’re surrounded by all these people that you don’t want to let down and you enjoy being in an environment that is supporting you, letting you take risks, letting you screw up, but not slapping you in the face for it, just urging you on collectively as you go. It’s an exciting place to be and it tends to make people want to be in it. Today, we all think of Niki who was such an important part of our team. Losing him was quite a massive blow, particularly to Toto who spent so much of his working life with him, but for all of us as well, because Niki was someone with such a big personality, such a huge figure in our sport and such a friend to the team. I think he would have appreciated this – doing it in such fine style this year, he would have seen this as a team at the top of its game. He’d probably be telling us to work on next years car now, but I think we’ve done him proud this season.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport claim 25 points in a thrilling race in Austin

• Lewis came home in P3, racing to the 15th podium at a US Grand Prix for Mercedes-Benz Power
• Valtteri finished today’s race in P5, securing ten points for the Constructors’ Championship
• Lewis (346 points) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 70 points from Sebastian Vettel (276 points) with Valtteri (217 points) in P4 and with 75 points left to be scored in the season
• Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (563 points) lead Ferrari (497 points) by 66 points in the Constructors’ Championship with 129 points remaining to be scored in the 2018 season

Lewis Hamilton

It was actually a really fun race, to be close with Kimi and have a bit of a battle with him and Max. It was quite cool that it was Ferrari, Red Bull and us battling for positions and it must have been exciting to watch. Naturally, I’m a bit disappointed in our performance, to have started first but finished third, but I’m still grateful that I managed to finish up ahead of Seb. When you don’t have Friday practice you don’t get to work on the set-up and get the optimum out of the car. Everyone was in the same boat, but I think ultimately Ferrari came closer to us with the changes they made. In the race, we were lacking pace on the straights, but I gave it everything. I was still pushing like crazy and that’s what racing is all about. I had one little chance at the end, but I had to give Max a lot of space because it’s better to finish third than get taken out by someone who’s not fighting for the championship, so I didn’t want to take that risk. We were going for the win today, but it wasn’t meant to be. We’re going to Mexico next; it’s such a beautiful place, but I haven’t always had the best results there, so I definitely want to win that race.Valtteri Bottas

We knew going into the race that it was going to be a difficult afternoon. The Ferrari looked very quick yesterday and there were a lot of question marks because of the limited running in the dry, so making predictions on the set-up and the tyres was very tricky. We didn’t quite have the pace that we were hoping for, especially on the Soft tyres. We had planned for a one-stop race and that’s what we did, but in hindsight the second stint was just a little bit too long. My tyres started to go three or four laps before the Sebastian overtook me and they were just completely gone in the end, that’s why he managed to build such a big gap in only a few laps. But we couldn’t work the two-stop work with Lewis either, so overall we were just lacking pace today. We will now do our usual work of analysing and understanding why we weren’t quicker today, so we can come back stronger and hopefully win in Mexico. There’s only three more races left in the season and the fight is far from over, so we will give it everything to get the best results possible.

Toto Wolff

First of all, congratulations to Kimi on his win today – it has been a long time since we saw him on the top step and it was great for Formula One to have him up there. This was a day of fantastic racing, and a great show for the American fans with lots of wheel-to-wheel battles, but it wasn’t a good day for us at Mercedes. All week, we have heard people talking us up, talking Ferrari down and talking as if this season is a foregone conclusion; but that narrative doesn’t fit the reality of Formula One. We have been wary and respectful of Ferrari at every race this year and we knew they would come here to fight back hard – and so they did. It wasn’t a surprise against competitors of such strength. On our side, the story of the race wasn’t really one of strategy; we didn’t have the balance of speed and tyre management that we would have needed to win this afternoon. When we were running second with Lewis and the VSC came out, we took the opportunity to off-set ourselves in order to go for the win – because it was going to be very tough to win by mirroring Kimi ahead. This looked pretty good for a while but we knew it would mean coming back through other cars in the final laps – and it didn’t work out. He managed to close the gap but we gave him too big a mountain to climb, and the tyres no longer had the pace advantage he needed to pass in the final laps, in spite of giving it a pretty spectacular go against Max. For Valtteri, though, we tried a one-stop strategy like the top two – and couldn’t make the tyres last either. So we need to learn the lessons from today, take strength from the pain of having been out-performed here and move on to Mexico determined to get closer to our potential in terms of the race performance. Nothing can, and nothing will, be taken for granted by any single member of the team.

James Allison

That wasn’t the race we were hoping for, but I guess we always knew that we might face a tricky time at the start with Kimi on the softer compound and with a strong run up the hill as a result. However, we did think that we would have the pace one way or another to impose ourselves on the race. It didn’t work out that way. The absolute pace of the car remained strong, but we consumed our tyres quicker than the others and that left us with a weak hand to play over the distance of the race. You could see that both in the two-stop that Lewis did, aided by a Virtual Safety Car, and in the one-stop that we chose for Valtteri; both drivers started brightly enough in their stints but their challenge faded as the tyres went off. We normally get the car in a happier place than this, but with Friday being washed out we were blind to the problems we experienced today. They were cruelly exposed today and they led to the disappointing outcome. We look forward to Mexico next weekend, and we are determined to put on a better performance than we managed today.

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Valtteri Bottas
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Valtteri Bottas

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Valtteri Bottas
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Valtteri Bottas

Formel 1 – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Großer Preis der USA 2018. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, United States GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas

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Lewis comes home second as Valtteri fights back to P8

• Lewis Hamilton came home in P2 in Albert Park to claim his eighth Formula One podium finish in Australia and 118^th career podium
• Valtteri Bottas battled from P15 on the grid to claim P8 at the chequered flag
• Lewis (18) sits P2 in the Drivers’ Championship, seven points behind Sebastian Vettel (25), with Valtteri (4) in P8
• Ferrari (40) lead Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport (22) by 18 points in the Constructors’ Championship

Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Australian GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Australian GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Australian GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Australian GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Australian GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Australian GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Australian GP 2018. Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

I did everything I could today, but it’s not what anyone expected to happen. I’m still in a little bit of disbelief as I don’ t really understand what happened yet. Once I get back with my engineers they’ll do a debrief and obviously I’ll find out why. This weekend there was so much talk about party mode or if Ferrari would be quick enough. I don’t think the gap was as big as it seemed yesterday, it’s just that I had a good lap and maybe Sebastian didn’t have a good lap. But today they were very, very quick. I put up a bit of a fight towards the end but they were within a tenth of us today. At least in my heart I know that I gave everything this weekend. I’m sure the team is feeling pain right now but we will regroup and we’ll work on it.

Valtteri Bottas

It was a bit of a frustrating day. I got some points, but not as many as I was hoping for, even starting 15^th on the grid. We had a good car, it felt just like in qualifying, the team did a really good job on that. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t make anything out of it because it is so difficult to overtake on this track. I also struggled a bit with overheating issues on the engine when I was following other cars, so I had to back off many times. It’s been a disappointing weekend and certainly not an ideal first race, but we still have 20 races to go. We need to learn from this weekend and try again in two weeks in Bahrain.

Toto Wolff

This was one that got away and it’s a bitter pill for us all to swallow. Following Lewis’ pit stop, we believed that we had the scenarios of both the Safety Car and the Virtual Safety Car covered, so that Sebastian could not pit and come out ahead of Lewis on track. We should have been several seconds safe, then suddenly saw on the TV screens that we were not. Of course, under the VSC sometimes you benefit and sometimes you lose out – but it was clearly a problem on our side and we need to analyse that to understand what happened and correct it. It’s all the more frustrating because we had the pace today to win. Lewis was in control through the opening stint, then after the pit stop as well, and looked on course for a strong victory but it wasn’t to be. On Valtteri’s side, we knew this would be a tough race to make up much ground. The margins between teams are closing up and this is one of the most difficult circuits to overtake on in the entire season. He made three passes on track, and benefited from the VSC too, but then was stuck in a DRS train in the final laps. Congratulations to Ferrari on their win today; for us, it’s a tough one to take, but there are lots of lessons to be learned so we can come back stronger next time.

James Allison

Having come to Melbourne with high hopes, it will be a long journey home for us, knowing that we under-delivered as a team. The pace we saw during the weekend was promising for the season ahead but it counts for nothing if you don’t handle correctly the cards that the race can deal to you – and, today, we didn’t. We need to analyse our mistakes, correct them and we look forward to getting to the next race and starting to put things right.

Christmas came early this year for the Silver Arrows. After an equally challenging and successful Formula One season, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport received a few treats in the past days – including the FIA Formula One World Championship trophies. On Sunday, the Mercedes-AMG F1 W08 EQ Power+ won the title “Racing Car of the Year” at the renowned Autosport Awards in London. Yesterday, the team was awarded its fourth consecutive FIA Formula One World Constructors’ Championship trophy at the FIA Prize Giving Gala in Versailles, France, while Lewis received his fourth Drivers’ Championship trophy. And tonight, colleagues from both Brixworth and Brackley will celebrate together at the team’s legendary Christmas Party.

Lewis Hamilton during the FIA Prize Giving at Versailles

2017 stats: A busy year in numbers

It has been a busy season for the Silver Arrows by every measure. Every team member had to go the extra mile in order to defend the titles across a major regulation change, following a renewed challenge from our rivals at Ferrari and Red Bull. The fact that Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport was the first team in Formula One history to achieve this goal underlines just how difficult an endeavour this was.

The stats paint the same picture: 2017 was a year of hard work, but also one of great success. Over the course of the season, the Silver Arrows won 12 of the 20 races, claimed 15 pole positions and led 714 out of 1,196 race laps. Including practice and qualifying sessions as well as pre-season and in-season tests, the two cars completed 7,789 laps – that’s 127,802 corners and 382,233 gear changes. The numbers for Mercedes-Benz Power are equally impressive: Mercedes-Benz powered cars accrued a total of 938 points in 2017 and raced 6,783 laps – more than any other engine manufacturer. The engineers also counted a total of 21,871 completed laps, 1,075,026 gear changes and 874,840,000 fuel injections. Indeed, Lewis completed every single racing lap but one during the 2017 season.

From the Autosport Awards to the FIA Prize Giving Gala

The team’s extraordinary performance is not just reflected in this year’s stats; it was also recognised by a number of awards that the Silver Arrows received in the past week. The celebrations started with the Autosport Awards on Sunday where the team picked up the trophy for Racing Car of the Year – winning the prestigious award for the fourth consecutive time. At the same event, Lewis won the categories International Racing Driver and British Competition Driver.

The following day, he received three prizes while attending the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Annual Awards Lunch: two BRDC Gold Stars – one in recognition of the strongest performance of the year in international motorsport, the other one for winning the Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship – and the Johnny Wakefield Trophy for the fastest lap of the Silverstone circuit. Lewis is now the most decorated recipient of BRDC Gold Stars in the history of the Club, surpassing the record of 10 Gold Stars previously set by Sir Stirling Moss. On Tuesday, Engineering Director Aldo Costa travelled to his home country Italy where he accepted Autosprint’s annual Cascho d’Oro on behalf of the team.

The most prestigious award ceremony, however, did not take place until yesterday, when the FIA Prize Giving Gala was held in the historic Palais de Versailles just outside Paris. For the fourth consecutive time, the FIA Formula One World Constructors’ Championship was awarded to Mercedes. And it was also the fourth time that Lewis collected the FIA Formula One World Drivers’ Championship trophy – all of which he won in a Mercedes-powered car.

“This has been a very challenging season for us,” Toto said. “We knew that we set ourselves an ambitious goal when we said that we want to defend the titles across a major regulation change. We raced against some very strong opponents who put up a good fight. So every team member had to work extra hard in order to reach our target. I am incredibly proud of the accomplishment and I want to thank everyone in Brixworth, Brackley and Stuttgart for their hard work.”

“It’s great to see the all the other motorsport champions being honoured here as well,” he continued. “I know how hard everyone fought who received a championship trophy tonight – huge congratulations to all of you!”

The best party is yet to start

While the FIA Prize Giving Gala marks the official end to the 2017 Formula One season, there’s still one event to come: the Silver Arrow’s legendary Christmas Party. Some people call it “the best party in F1”, others claim that they think it was great, but they don’t remember much… All we know is: it will be a celebration worthy of four consecutive world championships.

Images from the FIA Prize Giving Gala will be available to download from media.mercedesamgf1.com, images from the team’s Christmas Party will NOT be available to download anywhere.

Silver Arrows seal Sochi one-two in high tension Russian Grand Prix

• Nico took his 18th career victory today – his first at the Sochi Autodrom and fourth of the 2016 season
• Lewis completed a second Silver Arrows 1-2 finish of the 2016 season in P2 with a battling performance from P10 on the grid
• Nico set the fastest lap of the race – beating the previous best of 1:40.071 (VET, 2015) by just under a second (0.977s)
• Lewis produced a superbly controlled drive to manage a water pressure problem in the closing stages of the race and retain second position from Räikkönen
• Nico (100) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 43 points from Lewis (57) in P2
• MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS (157) lead Ferrari (76) by 81 points in the Constructors’ Championship

Formula One – MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, Russian GP 2016

Nico Rosberg

This weekend really went really perfectly for me. Already in Qualifying I had found a perfect balance and that continued throughout the race, which was fantastic. I had a great start and from there was able to control the pace at the front. Thank you so much to everybody at the factories for building such an amazing car. If you have a car like this, you are really able to push to the limits and that’s an awesome feeling. Lewis drove really well to come back up to second so quickly, so well done to him too. The only down side to the weekend was to see that reliability is becoming a bit of a concern, as Lewis obviously has a problem yesterday and both cars had issues during the race today. But we have a great team behind us and I’m fully confident that we will sort this out. It´s unbelievable to go into the European races with four wins and I really look forward to Barcelona now. Thanks, Russia – you were very good to me!

Lewis Hamilton

Firstly, I would like to thank the guys who came together to get the new parts over here from the factory last night – and then to the mechanics who worked all through the night to get everything prepared for me to go out there and race today. The guys on my side of the garage are having a really hard time of it at the moment – but I have every faith and confidence in them. We’ve swapped things round in the garage a bit this season but that is absolutely not the reason we’ve been having issues. It hasn’t been the case for the past three years and I have no reason to believe it would be now. Without their hard work I wouldn’t even have got to this point, so a big thank you to them once again. The first corner was pretty hectic. I don’t know what happened – but I saw something happening in the corner of my eye and just thought “I’m not getting caught again!” I managed to get out of the way and avoid it – but if I’d turned in I would have collected them. It was pure instinct and I’m glad I was able to come out without any contact this time. From there I had good pace and I felt like I could challenge for the win – but then there was the water pressure problem which ended that chance. It was tough to hang on at the end but I handled it as best I could. I had to really nurse the car home and I’m just relieved to have made it to the flag after how this weekend has been. I’ve got a long way to go yet this season with not many healthy engine parts left, so we need to do a better job on reliability.

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

That race was anything but plain sailing today – it was a pretty stressful experience to get both cars home, and there was a point when we thought neither of them might make it to the flag. First of all, congratulations to Nico, he did a perfect job all weekend and controlled the race from the front once again. He didn’t put a foot wrong and, when we faced an issue on the MGU-K during the middle part of the race, he was able to do all the necessary steps to keep it under control and bring it home. As for Lewis, he drove brilliantly. Some really good, aggressive passing manoeuvres and clever racing brought him to P2 – and he was just getting his head down to charge when we saw a water leak and he was losing water pressure. The only thing to do was ask him to back off to bring the car home and fortunately that meant the situation stabilised but cost him the chance of racing Nico. No doubt he will be thinking about what could have been today – but it was a fantastic recovery after such a tough moment in qualifying yesterday. A one-two finish is always something special and to be savoured, especially with the performance advantage we enjoyed this weekend. We are pushing hard this year and finding the limits of our car – but we need to get on top of our issues so the drivers can battle it out on track themselves. That’s what we all want to see and what we will be working hard to achieve in the coming days before Barcelona.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)

Coming into the race, the team did a fantastic job to get Lewis’ car back into shape for the race in the right specification and preserving his tenth place on the grid under parc ferme restrictions. It was quite a dramatic start, from which our drivers fortunately emerged unscathed. The result, in fact, worked in their favour, with Nico comfortable at the front and Lewis moving up to fifth. After the re-start, Lewis made some fantastic overtaking moves on Massa and Räikkönen, then once again on Bottas following the first round of stops. This proved critical to his result. After Nico’s stop, his car developed an MGU-K problem which we were able to manage to some extent but remained a concern to the end of the race. Then, shortly afterwards, Lewis’ water pressure started to progressively drop. We encouraged him to ease off, which helped to a degree. But, in reality, this appeared to be a terminal situation and we were sitting for about 20 laps with our fingers crossed hoping the car would make it to the flag. By some miracle it did just that, which came as a huge relief after the difficulties of the weekend. Overall, it’s great to get another one-two finish. But it’s clear that we have more work to do in the days leading up to the next race to understand the series of problems experienced over the past two weekends.

Nico doubles up and Lewis fights back on eventful night for F1 in Bahrain. Nico Rosberg took his 16th career victory Sunday – his first at the Bahrain International Circuit. Rosberg’s teammmate Lewis Hamilton finished his race at Bahrain, respectably, in third for his 89th Formula One podium.

Currently, Nico (50) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 17 points from Lewis (33) who is in P2. In the Constructors’ Championship, MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS (83) lead Ferrari (33) by 50 points.

Bahrain Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg

Wow, what a weekend! I am so happy with how everything is working out at the moment. The start was definitely the key to my win – and that was a really great moment, as it was an area that we put a lot effort into before the race. Leading into Turn One was a relief, to be honest, as I could see in my mirrors that it was very busy behind me. But from then on I was able to control the pace and take the win. Strategy-wise we had to play it safe. It maybe wasn’t the quickest option – but we had to cover the risk of a safety car. It was an almost perfect weekend for me – only qualifying could have been a fraction better. What a great start to the season – a big thank you to the guys and girls at the factories for this amazing car! Now I look forward to China, where I won my first ever Grand Prix, so I have plenty of positive energy heading there.

Lewis Hamilton

I didn’t get a good start today – but it actually wasn’t as bad as the last one. They were completely different incidents – both painful, but this one probably more so! In Melbourne I had loads of wheel spin but this time I just didn’t get away as well as I needed to and that was down to me. If you start on pole and go backwards it quickly becomes a domino effect. It’s so easy to get clipped from there and unfortunately that’s what happened at Turn One. Nonetheless, I managed to climb back up there and at least get some points, so again it was good damage limitation. I could easily have not finished the race, so I’m glad it wasn’t more points dropped in the end. I had so much damage on the car that I couldn’t keep up with Kimi. I was fighting hard and did what I could with it – but it wasn’t quite enough to catch him, so in the end I had to just save the tyres in case of a safety car. A big thank you to all the fans who came out this weekend. I’ve got some incredible support here. I’ve been so well taken care of, so I look forward to coming back next year. Now I’ve got to wait until China for the next battle – but it’s a track that has been good to me for many years, so hopefully things will turn around a bit for me there.

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

Congratulations to Nico first of all. He’s on a roll right now, with five race wins in a row, and he didn’t put a foot wrong today – a clean start, clean turn one and then the race was his to control. He was quick when he needed to be, without taking any unnecessary risks, and deserved another great win. On Lewis’ side, like in Melbourne he found himself P7 on the first lap – and, again, he used the fighting spirit we all know to get back to the podium. He got a poor getaway again – and we saw up and down the field that the new rules are causing much more variability in the starts, which was the intention. After that, he got hit by Bottas at the first corner in a pretty over-optimistic move, which damaged the car pretty badly on the front wing and the floor – it cost a good chunk of overall performance. From then on, it was about damage limitation and trying to get back through the field, even with a damaged car; Lewis did a great job at that. But it was clear in the middle of the race that he didn’t have the pace to challenge Raikkonen, so then we just played it safe and brought everything home. We’re just two rounds into a season of 21 races, so there are no trends to find in the results right now; as a team, we’re pleased to have made this strong start to the year, and that we are taking our opportunities when they come. But it’s clear that we would have seen a different race today if Sebastian had not been forced to retire before the start. So we will keep our feet on the ground and keep pushing for the next race in China.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)

An eventful start to the race, with Sebastian dropping out and then the first corner incident for Lewis. There was a lot of damage to the car – particularly to the floor but also to the front wing – so we were very relieved to see that it still had enough performance to allow Lewis to start fighting back through the pack. We debated changing the front wing at the first stop but eventually decided that there was not sufficient damage to warrant the time loss in the box. Meanwhile, Nico made a strong start and had a good buffer after Kimi also lost out at Turn One, so it was a fairly straightforward race for him with no issues to report. For Lewis, he battled his way up to Kimi and we decided to try something different to get him past by taking the medium tyre and targeting a two stop strategy. Initially this looked promising, as he was gaining on Kimi despite running a slower compound after the first stops. However, it soon became apparent that the medium was degrading as badly as the soft, so that strategy unfortunately began to unwind quite quickly. We therefore converted him back to a three stop – but of course Ferrari shadowed and we then had to cover that in turn with Nico. At that point, with all three cars on the same tyres, we had to just hold position to the end. It was great for Nico to get the win and great damage limitation on Lewis’ side to recover good points – if a big shame for him that he couldn’t convert his amazing pole position into a win, through no fault of his own.

Formula 1 and its future hangs in the balance. F1 has been in trouble for some time now with viewership and fans not paying top dollar to view the race at the racetracks or even watching the races on TV for that matter. Revenue is also down and drivers are speaking out against the sport at an alarming rate. So are the fans. Multiple problems could be to blame for the sport’s decline. Yet, those issues could all be in the past as Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s head honcho, a man’s that’s been in charge of the sport for over 40 years and a big part of its problems, finally seems willing to give up the reigns to someone else.

Bernie Ecclestone

Ecclestone recently stated that CVC, the holding group that controls a majority stake in Formula 1 and employs him, has on the table a deal worth nearly $8.6 billion to acquire controlling interest in the sport. While Ecclestone declined to state who the parties involved were, he did state to Britain’s The Sun, “I think CVC will make a decision on the sale sooner or later. There are people who want to buy. Actually, two of the people have agreed [on] the price. It’s just a question of whether CVC wants to sell or not.”

Ten years ago, CVC purchased the sport, and over the years, has sold bits and pieces to other invested parties. However, this would be essentially a full sale of the sport due to the controlling 35 percent stake it represents. There’s no word on whether or not CVC is actually considering the offer. There’s also been no word on whether or not the driver’s or team’s associations have been consulted or informed on the details of the sale and acquisition.

In that same interview, Ecclestone further agitated fans by again stating that this could be the last year we see a Formula 1 race in Italy. “Monza has got a contract for this year, so it is going to go ahead. Next year is the question mark. I don’t think we have to have an Italian Grand Prix. Somebody once told me a funny thing that you couldn’t have Formula 1 without a race in France. But we do.”

Will Formula 1 be sold? Will Ecclestone finally leave the sport? Can Formula 1 recover some of that lost luster? We can only wait and see if the sale goes through and hope that the terms of the sale bolster the future of Formula 1 instead of hindering it.

Via: AutomobileMag.com

Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton clinch a memorable 1-2 finish after a thrilling race in Melbourne, Australia.

• Nico took his 15th career victory today – his second at the Melbourne Grand Prix Cicuit
• Lewis claimed his 88th Formula One podium to complete a Silver Arrows 1-2
• After a poor start dropped them from the front row to P3 (Nico) and P7 (Lewis), strong drives and good strategy calls saw both recover to cling on from a hard-charging Vettel
• Nico (25) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 7 points from Lewis (18) in P2
• MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS (43) lead Ferrari (15) by 28 points in the Constructors’ Championship

Formula One – MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, Australian GP 2016. Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg

That was a perfect race for me. The start was tricky, as I was on the dirty side of the grid and Vettel managed to be ahead. He did a really good job at the start – but we chose the perfect strategy by going onto the medium tyre after the red flag. A big thanks to the team on the pit wall for that, to everyone back at the factories for this fantastic car and to everyone back in Europe who woke up so early to tune in for the race. I hope it was a good show for you! We can enjoy this moment for sure – but we know now just how strong those red cars will be this season, so we cannot afford to relax. I’m really looking forward to the next races and hopefully some more exciting battles. Finally, I also have to say it was a big relief to see Fernando walk away from his shunt. It shows how incredible the safety of these cars is now, which is great to see.

Formula One – MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, Australian GP 2016. Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton

I’d had a perfect weekend in every way up until the lights went out and felt confident heading into the race. I got a bit of wheelspin off the line then got pushed wide at the first corner, so from there it was just about recovering. But these things happen and I’m grateful for the way I was able to fight back through. P2 isn’t bad in terms of damage limitation after a start like that. I spent a long time stuck behind one of the Toro Rossos and there wasn’t a lot I could do about it as he was on a quicker tyre. I could just see the others pulling away, so the safety car definitely helped by bunching us all up again. I was already on a one-stop strategy and, to be honest, I don’t know why everyone else didn’t do the same on the medium. I’m happy they didn’t, as I probably would have finished a lot further back. In any case, the team did a great job to help us pull it back and there’s still 20 races to go, so I’m feeling pretty chilled. I’ve had far worse starts to the season, so I’ll take that today and head into the next one looking up.

Formula One – MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS, Australian GP 2016. Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

First of all, a big relief to see Fernando walk away from that shunt. The race itself was extremely tense throughout – a real cliffhanger and a great way to show what Formula One is really about. We didn’t get it right at the start. The drivers were slow away from the line then touched at the first corner, so we were forced into recovery mode. Our plan from there had been to put Nico on a two stop and Lewis a one stop strategy before the red flag came out. We did the maths and opted to go with one set of mediums to the end, with the drivers on the knife edge of endurance and performance. Managing tyres and temperatures became a big challenge, with debris causing an overheating brake caliper that almost forced us to retire Nico at one stage. Thankfully that was not the case and he led Lewis home for a hard-fought 1-2. A perfect result to start the year, a great job from the drivers to manage and recover the race, fantastic work on the pit wall to give them the right strategy to do so and an incredible team effort from everybody at the factories to get us here. We must now sort our starts and look to carry out momentum into Bahrain.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)

What can you say after a race like that? Absolutely fantastic to get a 1-2 at the first race of the season – particularly after we made life very difficult for ourselves with a pair of poor starts. After the red flag we opted to run the medium tyre to the end and expected others to do the same – which would have made the win a very big ask, let alone a 1-2. Of course, we can look back and enjoy it now – but it was quite stressful at the time! It made for a great spectacle, so I hope the fans enjoyed it. Overall, we can be extremely happy today. Congratulations to everyone back at Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart. Together, they’ve produced a car which has given us the perfect start to the season in very exciting circumstances.

Formula 1 drivers are asking for closed cockpit designs by 2017 to help reduce deaths and injuries during racing. This comes after the deaths of Jules Bianchi and Justin Wilson, which have prompted a renewed interest in increasing head protection for drivers. Currently, cockpits are completely open leaving drivers open to serious head injuries. The design currently sitting at the top of the list is one suggested by Mercedes-Benz. It includes a halo-style bar that wraps around the driver’s head with a minimal reduction in visibility.

Formula 1 Drivers Call for Closed Cockpits

Research into this design is promising, but it goes nowhere without approval. According to Motorsport, Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) chairman Alex Wurz hopes approval will come this Friday during a regularly scheduled FIA meeting.

Formula 1 Drivers Call for Closed Cockpits

The new halo bar requires structural changes to vehicles, but leaves the chassis alone. Wurtz believes the one-year lead time is more than enough time to allow for modifications of cars. This isn’t about racing faster, but racing safer, so hopefully approval will come soon and we won’t be seeing so many stories of F1 drivers being hurt.

Formula 1 Drivers Call for Closed Cockpits

Via: BoldRide

Success in Sochi with Lewis taking the win to secure the 2015 Constructors’ World Championship

• Lewis took his second Russian Grand Prix win, becoming only the ninth driver to win the first two Grand Prix at a new circuit
• The victory sealed the F1 Constructors’ Championship for Mercedes-Benz for the second time in a row
• The result also marks Lewis’ 9th win of the season and 42nd of his Formula One career, drawing him level with Sebastian Vettel in the all-time standings
• Nico was forced to retire on lap seven due to a failed throttle damper that the team are now investigating
• Both drivers started on the option tyres, with Lewis pitting for his only stop on lap 32 to change to the prime tyres
• MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS now lead Ferrari by 172 points in the Constructors’ Championship
• Lewis now leads the Drivers’ Championship by 66 points from Vettel and 73 from Nico

Lewis took his second Russian Grand Prix win, becoming only the ninth driver to win the first two Grand Prix at a new circuit

Lewis Hamilton

It’s just an amazing feeling today. I have a huge admiration for this team. Driving the car through that race, it just felt so good and this is what I’ve always dreamed of having. Even though you’re in the front, it’s still a hard race to stay in the zone and not make mistakes. We were only doing a one-stop, so you’re trying not to lock up and damage the tyres. I felt like it was a big challenge today. It’s a shame I didn’t get to race with Nico, which I was really excited about. I’m glad my car made it as the rear wing was getting a bit loose towards the end, so I had to stay off the kerbs and try not to damage the car. I’ve got to enjoy what’s going on now and cherish the moment; there are still lots of points available this year. To get the Constructors’ Championship feels very special and a great feeling to be a part of this and to have contributed to the team’s success. It’s really an amazing feeling and I’m very proud of them up there on the podium, to see all their smiling faces. I feel like a small part in the chain of many people; I’m proud of that part and I look forward to seeing the whole team tomorrow at the factory. I knew the guys were going to do a good job this year but they’ve done an even better job this year than last, which is phenomenal.

Nico Rosberg

Racing can be very tough. You put so much effort into a weekend but in the end I leave Russia with no points. A very disappointing weekend for me. It all went well until the Safety Car came out. My throttle pedal came into my direction. At one point I wasn’t able to steer anymore as I had to lift my foot too much and touched the steering wheel with my knee. In the recent months I had some unlucky moments, which made it hard in the battle against Lewis. But I will come back and keep pushing. We can be very happy that we secured the Constructors’ title a second time in a row. So it’s a good day for everyone in the factories and we have to thank all that made this happen.

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

That was a day with every possible emotion: a bittersweet day on track, then a tense wait – and finally a confirmation that we have won a second world championship. Wow, there are never any simple days in this sport! But what a feeling it is to win a second title and a privilege to be part of this team. A world championship isn’t just about points on a scoreboard, it’s about many hours of hard work and sacrifice from every single member of the team, most of whom are away from the limelight‎ and work with incredible dedication six or seven days a week. Well done to every one of them in Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart; you have done a sensational job. Likewise, it may sound like a corporate line, but I must say thank you to all of our partners who have supported us every step of the way to deliver this level of performance; they make a fundamental contribution to our success. As for the race itself, it was a bittersweet experience. Lewis drove a fantastic race and didn’t put a foot wrong even though he had some problems to manage, especially towards the end with an aerodynamic instability on his rear wing. But he brought the car home in a really controlled way and strengthened his lead, well done to him. But I’m gutted for Nico after a problem with his throttle mechanism forced him to retire. It shows how sport this cruel can be: he had a brilliant weekend and opening lap, and I can only take my hat off to him about how he handled the situation, both in the car trying to find a solution – and afterwards in his professionalism. It’s another reminder to us that, even with the steps forward we have taken on reliability this year, our work is never done and we need to keep focusing on every tiny detail. But now we can sit back and savour the moment: the party will start tomorrow back at base!

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)

Fantastic news to get the second World Championship. A very strange way to get this now as a result of the penalty but the result still stands; a great credit to the teams at Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart for the fantastic effort that brought us to this stage with such dominance to win the Constructors’ Championship before the end of the season. In the race itself, it was good to see both cars make a good start today and get cleanly through Turn Two. After the early Safety Car a problem emerged with Nico’s throttle control, preventing him from lifting off fully and in an inconsistent manner. Eventually this got so bad, we retired the car. It’s emerged as a mechanical failure of the throttle pedal damper, which was causing a blockage. We are very sorry to Nico to lose so many points from the lead. A much better day for Lewis; there were some issues to manage in terms of whether to pit under the safety car, but we picked the right strategy and had good pace and tyre consistency through the race to manage the gap well. He did have a bit of an issue with his rear wing towards the second half of the race which became worse towards the end, where we were seeing some loss of downforce during braking. We had to warn him about that and we will find out in due course what was causing that. A great win for Lewis in the end, so congratulations to him.

Double podium for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS in enthralling Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit

• Lewis and Nico claimed a second consecutive double podium today, finishing P2 and P3 respectively
• Both drivers made clean starts to hold station in P1 / P3, only to then lose track position in the pits following the emergence of the Safety Car
• Lewis and Nico battled back strongly to return to the podium places, but top spot was out of reach after a strong performance from Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari
• Lewis ran an Option / Prime / Option / Prime strategy, Nico Option / Prime / Prime / Option
• Lewis marked his 150th Grand Prix start with his 72nd podium, while Nico claimed the 10th fastest race lap and 28th podium of his Formula One career

2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton

First of all, huge congratulations to Seb and Ferrari. You have to hand it to them – I wasn’t expecting them to be as quick as they were today but they had some serious pace and deserved the win. It’s great for the fans to see them up here. It was a tough race out there. I was struggling with the balance today and never really felt comfortable with the car. There was so much understeer that tyre management was really hard. When I went to the option it was much better, so I thought we’d use it again at the end and was surprised we went with the prime. But I made the best I could with it and ultimately I’m sure the team made the call for the right reasons. There was a bit of confusion on the radio at one point where I wasn’t quite sure what we were doing on the strategy but I’m not sure if pitting with Seb would have made the difference anyway. They were as fast if not faster than us today and once I had that gap to make up it was just a step too far. I’m now looking forward to the next race and fighting to get back to the front again.

Nico Rosberg

That wasn’t a great weekend for me and I cannot be happy with third place. When the Safety Car came out I lost a lot of time in the pits. I expected to have to wait behind Lewis but it was letting some other cars by that cost the places – especially waiting for the Red Bull queue to move, I think it was. So I had to fight through to the top positions which was tough but my race pace was okay, so I can build on that. We have to congratulate Sebastian and Ferrari. They had a great race pace today and it’s very impressive how they improved over the winter. Now this will be a fight against Ferrari I guess – and we want to strike back in Shanghai.

Toto Wolff

Our first feeling today is obviously one of disappointment. We were beaten fair and square by Ferrari and Sebastian, who did a fantastic job, and I’m not sure we could have matched their long run pace at any point. They took a well-deserved win. We saw on Friday that Kimi was really strong in these hot conditions, with the track over 60 degrees, and that was confirmed in the race. Of course, it’s easy to be clever after the race looking at things we could have done better and there are certainly plenty of points that could have been optimised. But we take these decisions together as a team and this is the moment to stay calm, do our analysis and learn what we can improve for next time. It was a complicated race for the team to read – and for the drivers, too, from the cockpit. We had some interesting radio discussions and both guys did a great job to deliver the double podium at the finish. But I think we can also take a step back and look at the sport today. Always it seems that when people are making the most noise about changing the rules, Formula One delivers. It was the case in Bahrain last year and we saw it again today. It wasn’t a perfect day for Mercedes but it was a good one for Formula One.

Paddy Lowe

First of all, congratulations to Ferrari and Sebastian on an impressive victory. Coming into the race, there were two main choices to be made: whether to make two or three stops, and whether the Prime or the Option would be the better race tyre. It was clear yesterday that opinion was divided on that question, as we saw the leading teams using different tyre compounds in Q1. We saved new Prime tyres for the race, while others saved new Options. We planned a three-stop strategy favouring the Prime tyre and, although the Safety Car came out early, it was late enough to be used as the first of our three stops. With hindsight, the advantage this gave to Ferrari on their two-stop strategy, and the time we lost in traffic in the first laps after the Safety Car, left us with a gap to Sebastian that proved too much of a challenge for us to recover – especially considering that we did not have an underlying pace advantage to Ferrari, who were very competitive this weekend. Nonetheless, we scored a good haul of points with P2 and P3 and I must also say well done to the team, who performed brilliantly on one of the most difficult weekends for human endurance.

Mercedes AMG Petronas Driver, Lewis Hamilton took victory by the narrowest of margins in Sunday’s 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix after an hard fought battle with teammate Nico Rosberg. This is the second consecutive one-two finish for the Silver Arrows team, they finished one-two at the 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix, as they extend its lead at the top of the Constructors’ Championship.  The Mercedes’ teammates were followed by Sergio Perez of Force India-Mercedes, Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing-Renault and Nico Hulkenberg of Force India-Mercedes in fifth.

Mercedes AMG Petronas 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

• Lewis claimed his 24th Formula One career victory and his third for MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS today
• Nico claimed his 14th Formula One career podium, his 12th for the team, on what marked his 150th Grand Prix start
• A margin of just 1.085 secs separated the pair at the flag, with just 0.088 secs between their respective fastest laps
• Lewis stopped for soft tyres on lap 19, switching to medium tyres under safety car conditions on lap 41
• Nico stopped for medium tyres on lap 21, pitting again under the safety car on lap 41 for soft tyres
• Mercedes-Benz powered cars occupied all three podium places and six of the top 10 positions

Mercedes AMG Petronas 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton

What an incredible day. That was a really tough race tonight and I am absolutely delighted to have come home with the win. It’s a long time since I had a race like that! My weekend started off well but I didn’t really have great pace for qualifying and the race. I knew that I needed a good start and to go into the first corner in the lead was crucial to my race this evening. From there, it was such a battle. Nico drove fantastically well and, in all honesty, he had the pace on me today but I managed to hold on. I knew when the safety car came out that Nico would be on the option tyres and that he would be quick. To try and stay ahead of him was so hard and when I came across the line I was just so relieved. When you’re racing your team-mate, the pressure is really intense and we both knew that we had to bring the cars home for the team and for the championship. All credit to the team for allowing us to race and I hope the fans loved the show that we were able to put on tonight. A big thank you to the team, especially to my engineers for all the information they were giving me during the race, and to everyone here and back at the factories for all their hard work. Another one-two is just fantastic for us. I’m also very proud to have joined Fangio with 24 Grand Prix wins today, he’s one of the great racers of all time so that’s a real honour.

Mercedes AMG Petronas 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg

It was a great battle out there this evening with Lewis and this kind of race is exactly why I am in Formula One; I love to race like today. Of course, it’s very disappointing to have finished second in the end but I gave it everything and it just didn’t quite come off for me. Lewis did a great job defending his position and, so often when I did manage to get past, I then couldn’t see him in the blind spot in my mirrors. Our strategy was good and to change it after the first stint was a decision that I made with the team. It was a slightly slower strategy but it gave me the best chance of catching Lewis at the end on the option tyres. The difference between the prime and the option was not as big as we expected however and that’s why I didn’t quite manage to get by. The positive must be that this was a great day for Formula One. The race was a fantastic show and hopefully it proves that the critics of our new technology are wrong. I can’t wait for China now and I want to end up on the top step there.

Toto Wolff

It has been a fantastic weekend for the team from start to finish. To have led every session with both cars is a real achievement and we can be very proud of the combined effort of our staff at Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart. The race was quite simply brilliant to watch, with battles throughout the field. Lewis and Nico drove with a great deal of maturity and respect for both each other and the team but still put on a great show. What we saw today was two drivers at the peak of their abilities fighting fair and square for victory. This is what we go racing for and it was a strong advert for the sport: in particular under these new regulations. With the result last week in Malaysia mirrored here tonight, we now find ourselves in a strong position in both Championships. We are under no illusions, however, that this is a given. We must take these moments and use them as inspiration in the on-going push to achieve our goals.

Paddy Lowe

Another exceptional and well-deserved result for the team today after what has been a flawless weekend from everyone involved. From the very first laps in practice the car looked competitive and we didn’t miss a beat throughout. From the pit wall, the race was fascinating to watch. While there were undoubtedly some tense moments, we knew that both drivers would be sensible enough to bring the cars home: although it was worth throwing in a little reminder just to be sure! All credit to the teams at Brackley, Brixworth and Stuttgart for what they have achieved already this season. A particular note must go to the team at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains, with their Power Units taking all three podium places and six of the top 10 positions. It’s fantastic to show the world that not only can amazing technology be produced within this exciting new ‘Efficiency Formula’ but that racing is alive and well within our sport. We now have a two-day test here in Bahrain where we will be looking to build on our current performance and maintain this momentum into the next races. For now, though, we can enjoy what has been a highly successful few weeks for the team.

Mercedes AMG Petronas driver’s Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg scored a combined 27 points secured at the Belgian Grand Prix Sunday, finishing third and fourth at Spa-Francorchamps.

Hamilton started off in pole position but was passed in the first lap by Red Bull’s Sebastion Vettel, who would go on to finish first. Starting 9th on the grid, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso raced past the pack including Hamilton to finish 2nd. Holding off the rest of the pack and running a two-stop strategy, Hamilton finished the Belgian grand prix in third, scoring enough point to put him in third place in the Drivers’ Championship.

Nico, running the same two-stop strategy, finished just behind his Mercedes teammate for a fourth place finish, holding off the relentless Mark Webber.

With Hamilton and Rosberg’s successful finishes, they hold on to second in the Constructors’ Championship.

Starting off the 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix from pole position, Mercedes AMG Petronas’ Nico Rosberg led the race for two laps before being overtaken on the third lap by Sebastian Vettel who would then go on to win the race.  Rosberg battled for fifth position for quite some time before dropping back after contact was made with Mark Webber’s Red Bull car, requiring him to take a fourth pit stop. Rosberg finished respectively in ninth position.

Lewis Hamilton started off the race in 9th position and dropped back as far as 11 in an effort to conserve his tires but truly came alive when he overtook the Webber’s Red Bull car on the 51st lap. Webber managed to take over Hamilton on the 53rd lap, setting up a great to watch side-by-side racing battle  between the two – Webber blocked Hamilton and Hamilton ducked and dived behind him. It was on the very last lap of the race going into Turn 1 with Hamilton on the inside that Webber had to concede to Hamilton ending in a fifth place finish for Hamilton and a seventh place finish for Webber.

• Lewis completed a three-stop strategy to finish in fifth place after starting ninth
• He stopped on laps 10, 22 and 38, running option/option/prime/prime
• After starting from pole, Nico was forced to convert to a four-stop strategy at the end of his third stint
• He stopped on laps 9, 20, 33 and 44, running option/prime/prime/option/option

Lewis Hamilton

I’m really happy with our result today. It’s been a tough weekend for us but we got through it and finishing in fifth place was some good damage limitation. My race didn’t start well at all. I was looking after the tires but I really struggled on the first two stints and was falling back. But as the temperatures dropped, the car picked up and then I had the grip that I needed to push and close the gap. I had so much fun fighting with Mark at the end. We really needed that point and I was so determined to get by. It was good, clean wheel-to-wheel racing. I’m very proud of what we have achieved over the first four races and to be third in the Drivers’ Championship is beyond any of our expectations. But we’ve got to keep pushing and find more performance. We’re hanging on by the skin of our teeth at the moment and, if we can make that next step, then we can close the gap.

Nico Rosberg

A tough day for me. As nice as it was to start from pole this afternoon, it was just as hard to finish in ninth place. I didn’t feel comfortable in the car today and it wasn’t much fun out there really. We switched to a four-stop strategy at the end of my third stint but it wasn’t enough. We were using the rear tyres too much and at the end, I was really struggling and wasn’t able to push hard enough. There is a lot of work ahead and we need to focus on why our race performance isn’t matching the pace that we can show in qualifying. Hopefully we can make some steps here before the European season starts.

Ross Brawn

We struggled badly in the early part of the race when the track temperatures were at their highest. This is an issue we have to address and we will continue working on solutions to improve our performance in this area. In the second half of the race, as the track temperatures cooled somewhat, our pace was not bad – particularly with Lewis. We got two cars home in the points, both drivers enjoyed some exciting wheel-to-wheel racing and the pit crew delivered some great stops. Lewis and Nico did as good a job as possible with the car we had this afternoon but it was a case of damage limitation for both of them. However we must make it a priority to cope better with elevated temperatures: the tyres are the same for everybody and we are not performing as well as our competitors in these conditions.

Toto Wolff

We knew it would be a tough day and the high track temperatures were clearly not good for us. That’s not an excuse but a priority area to improve. We need to analyse carefully why we suffered so much, particularly in the early stages, and why we were not on the pace. Both drivers were tough but fair in defending their positions and delivered some good racing, particularly Lewis in the closing stages. But from a team perspective we must see this as a disappointing result. We learned a lot this afternoon but it is clear that we still have a lot to learn.

In the first race of the 2013 season and his first race as part of the Mercedes AMG Petronas team, Lewis Hamilton finished in fifth place at Sunday’s Australian Grand Pirx after starting third on the grid. A very respectable start to the season, garnering Hamilton 10 points. His new team-mate Nico Rosberg started the race 6th on the grid and was off to a strong start, but was forced to retire his car early after an electrical issue that occured midway through the race.