Having utterly dominated the sport since 2014 (the real kind of domination – not the Red Bull kind), Mercedes would have come into 2017 with a bit of an advantage in hand. The regulations for 2017 might be very different, but Mercedes was well ahead of the field in terms of engine development as well as chassis development to an extent. It could be argued that most people were expecting Red Bull to be a very strong contender in 2017, due to the strong emphasis on aerodynamic development this year and the fact that Red Bull has Adrian Newey heading up their Aero department.
However, it has turned out that Ferrari most likely shifted their focus early in 2016 to develop their 2017 machine. This has resulted in the fight between the 2 front runners (Mercedes and Ferrari) to be closer than it has been in years – probably since 2008, when Ferrari and McLaren were neck-and-neck. Red Bull is still playing catch-up, and thus F1 is all about Ferrari and Mercedes at the moment.
This means that the development race between the two teams has gone to the next level – Mercedes has redesigned a massive portion of the Mercedes™ AMG™ Petronas™ F1™ Blessed™ W08™ EQ Power+™’s aerodynamic elements with the intention of pulling ahead at a second a lap – which hasn’t quite worked out for them as of yet, if you watch the Spanish Grand Prix again, where Vettel almost took the win for Ferrari.
The results of this aggressive development have been spectacular so far – both on and off-track. Check out some of the crazy bits that everybody on the Formula 1 Subreddit thinks they understand:
The levels of detail are mind-boggling – the 2017 regulations really have spoiled us viewers. Cars are looking absolutely mighty these days, and F1 feels a lot more like it used to do – the absolute pinnacle of motorsport.
What are your thoughts on the development this season? Are they putting teams with lower budgets at an even bigger disadvantage? This may be the case to some extent, but I suspect most viewers are just happy that Mercedes isn’t running away into the distance every race!
All images are credited to Craig Scarborough – check out ScarbsTech on Twitter!