Red Bull, Ferrari prising open Mercedes’ grip on Formula One
LONDON: It may be premature to call the end of an era of Mercedes domination but Daniel Ricciardo’s thrilling win for Red Bull in Shanghai on Sunday marks a clear shift in the Formula One landscape.
Even if Mercedes is back on top of the constructors’ standings, the world champion was beaten for the third race in a row at the Chinese Grand Prix , a first for the V6 turbo hybrid era that started in 2014.
‘‘It’s inevitable in all sports that at some point, the winning becomes harder or stops,’’ Ricciardo’s team boss, Christian Horner, said as the celebrations continued.
‘‘Mercedes still have a quick car. It’s incredible that after three races they haven’t won a Grand Prix yet,’’ the Briton, whose team won four successive double titles from 2010 to 2013, said.
The sheer depth of talent and resources at Mercedes’ disposal, and the fact that there are 18 races still to run in this gruelling 21round season, means it is too early to trumpet a changing of the guard.
Gloomy preseason predictions, based on testing form, that Lewis Hamilton and his AngloGerman team would run away with this championship can be laid to rest, however.
‘‘It certainly does look like the tide has turned . . . in this turbohybrid era,’’ 1996 world champion Damon Hill said after Ferrari swept the front row in qualifying for the second race in succession.
Red Bull’s success in the race, following on from two Ferrari victories, emphasised this will be more than just a twoteam battle.
For Mercedes, which for the first time since 2013 also failed to have both drivers appear on the podium together in at least two of the opening three rounds, Sunday’s race will keep the alarm bells ringing.
As a measure of form, Shanghai was more significant than Australia or Bahrain — both won last year by Ferrari’s championship leader, Sebastian Vettel.
It is seen as much more of a Mercedes circuit and the champions had won for the past four years in China, while Hamilton boasts an unprecedented five victories there.
While Vettel had looked good for a hattrick of wins on Sunday, Ricciardo cashed in on a safety car period that put Red Bull in the driving seat.
They could have had both drivers on the podium had Max Verstappen not wrecked his chances with some rash overtaking attempts, including a collision with Vettel that ultimately dropped the German down to eighth.
Mercedes might also have won without the safety car, with Mercedes getting Valtteri Bottas ahead of Vettel on strategy, but it knows the real score.
‘‘Sebastian, in my opinion, controlled the race at the beginning, and then the Red Bulls after the stop had just a mighty pace,’’ Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said.
‘‘The whole weekend we were just not good enough, everywhere,’’ he added.
‘‘This weekend we were probably third and fourth [behind Ferrari], so we just need to get our act together.’’
The trajectory of Hamilton’s season has been downward since Melbourne, with the 33yearold second, third and now fourth.
He has not won for six races, his last being the United States Grand Prix in Austin last October, which represents his longest such run since the end of 2015start of 2016 when he was off the top step for eight in a row.
‘‘It is clear from this weekend that we are not the quickest,’’ Hamilton, who did not spare himself blame either, said.
‘‘We’ve lost performance since Melbourne and maybe more so this weekend.
‘‘We are the second, or third fastest team at the moment so we have some improving to do, but that’s not impossible.’’ — Reuters