Mercedes celebrate toughest title yet

AUSTIN, Texas: Mercedes joined a select group of teams to have won the Formula One constructors’ championship for four years in a row on Sunday and recognised it as their toughest title yet.

With an unassailable lead of 147 points with 129 remaining from the final three races, Mercedes joined Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull who racked up similar streaks during their years of dominance.

Unlike their rivals, Mercedes have managed to stay on top despite major rule changes at the end of last year that introduced wider tyres and revised aerodynamics to make the cars faster and harder to handle.

And this season they have been fighting a resurgent and determined Ferrari rather than just waging an internal battle between team mates.

“This for us was the most difficult one because Ferrari was competitive and we still made it,” the team’s non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, himself a triple world champion, told reporters at the U.S. Grand Prix.

Mercedes have dominated since the start of the 1.6 litre V6 turbo hybrid era in 2014, and are set to win both titles again this year.

They have won 11 of 17 races so far this season and 62 of 76 since the start of 2014.

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton, who won at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday for the fifth time in six years, has won nine times this year and is a fingertip away from his own fourth championship. — Reuters