Mercedes and its fight to get back to the front of F1

This might sound harsh but, given that Ferrari and Mclaren haven’t won a Formula 1 world title since 2008, many neutrals have been looking to Mercedes to provide opposition to Red Bull. And, so far in this second ground-effect era, it has failed to do so.

For this year, a change in design concept created some hope that Mercedes could turn the tide. It still could but, as Alex Kalinauckas and Jake Boxall-legge show in our cover feature starting on page 18, there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome. That’s perhaps to be expected given Red Bull’s head start in this ruleset, but F1 needs someone to challenge Max Verstappen sooner rather than later, and it would be nice to see Lewis Hamilton end his time at Mercedes with some stirring performances at the front before heading to Ferrari.

Ollie Bearman beat Hamilton to his Ferrari debut by subbing for Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The 18-year-old Briton did a fine job, so we’ve taken a look through the history books this week to pick out the 10 drivers who impressed the most while making their world championship debuts for the famous team (p28).

Mclaren has achieved one motorsport goal this season. Thanks to Sam Bird’s fine last-lap pass in Brazil, the Woking squad is now a winner in Formula E. Stefan Mackley was in Sao Paulo to see how Bird scored his first win in over two years (p44).

The other big event last weekend was the Sebring 12 Hours. Cadillac perhaps should have won and Porsche could have done, but it was Acura that took a narrow victory in a dramatic finish (p38).