The newly appointed F1 motorsport boss, Ross Brawn, has expressed his opinion that Mercedes may find themselves in an even more dominant position next year.
The 2017 season was in fairness the most exciting in terms of racing in the current V6 Hybrid era, in which Mercedes is the team to beat since 2014. Four drivers and manufacturers titles speak for themselves and even a very competitive Ferrari couldn’t beat the silver arrows this year.
Lewis Hamilton had a fierce battle with Sebastian Vettel for the world title, but the Briton ended up as the champion with three races to go. But now, Brawn believes that the world champions will be even stronger next year than 2017.
Mercedes have got a great group of people, but my slight worry is that they will get even stronger now. They’ve had a change of senior management and that was in the middle of a car regulation change, which is not easy. By their own admission, the car they had this year was a bit of a diva and I strongly suspect that’s not going to be the case next year. So I just see a continuation of the steamroller. Let’s hope I’m wrong. We have to keep a balanced view. We had some great races this season, so Abu Dhabi wasn’t the greatest, but we had some great races this year. I think it’s a combination of the circuits, the cars we have, the drivers and how competitive everyone is, so I’m optimistic we can have a very strong year next year.
