Could Mercedes’ Poor Starts Cost Them a Shot at 3rd Straight Formula 1 Title?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: March 27, 2016

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Mercedes have won 33 of 39 races since the start of Formula One's hybrid V6 engine era in 2014, so it is difficult to find many faults with the team. If you wanted to point one out, though, it would almost certainly be their starts—especially since about the midway point of the 2015 season.

Either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg have qualified on pole for 37 of those 39 grands prix, but several times at least one of them has suffered a poor start: both drivers last year at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and the Hungaroring in Hungary, Rosberg at Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps and Suzuka in Japan, Hamilton at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, Italy's Monza and at the first race this year at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. 

As Ferrari continues to close the gap to the Silver Arrows, it is something the team will need to correct, lest it cost them a chance for a third straight championship season.

"We've conducted that analysis and there is not one single factor you could name and say is the reason why our starts did not go so well," Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff told Autosport's Ian Parkes last August.

"We've seen many various reasons, plus circumstances, why the starts went wrong, and there is no clear pattern. It's just the starts weren't great."

Having qualified on pole at nearly every race, there is nowhere for the Mercs to go but down, but F1 Fanatic's first lap statistics from last year are not flattering for Hamilton or Rosberg.



In 2015, though, the Mercedes cars were so dominant that even losing those places at the starts did not really affect their sprint to the titles. The team won the constructors' championship by 275 points, clinching the title with four races to spare. Likewise, Hamilton finished 103 points ahead of his nearest non-Mercedes challenger, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

This year could be a different story.
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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