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“We know it’s bad, just drive the car,” if someone five years ago was told a team principal said this to a driver never would they guess this was from Mercedes Toto Wolff. The decline of the Mercedes F1 team has been stark and brutal. The team once the ones to beat now has a car so slow commentators point it out on every straight. Questions have been circling the team about car, driver retention, and everything in between. The central question behind all of this remains the one in the back of every fan's mind, how can someone so good fail so quickly? The answer comes from a combination of the sport and what made them so great in the first place to show that touching the sun isn’t all it’s cut out to be.
Mercedes started its reign of dominance in 2013 when a combination of Lewis Hamilton's driving and a supercar gave the team its first big win. The team went on to be unstoppable for the next six years, the toughest competition often came down to the two Mercedes drivers. The crowning jewel of this reign was the W11, a car some consider to be the peak of all formula one cars, the W11 made a prime Hamilton more than unstoppable it made him the greatest. Mercedes' fatal and seemingly only flaw at this time was their own in fighting.
One of these side stories is the famous incident between Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The two grew up childhood friends dreaming of a career together but once they got it the dream quickly revealed itself to be a nightmare. The team quickly devolved into fighting with the rivalry going as far as the two cars taking eachother out multiple times. This kind of infighting and Mercedes allowance for at times extreme competition between their drivers can still be seen today and is part of what is killing the once champions.
While Brocedes will forever be in our hearts it left the team largely unaffected at the time as in the end it was always a Mercedes winning. Formula One has always existed in a kind of cycle format with different teams cycling through their chance at the top. Whether through rule changes or just everyone else catching up a team's peak typically lasts no more than three or four seasons. Yet Mercedes lasted a whopping eight.
This dominance quickly came crashing down after a devastating and controversial loss in 2021 which saw a quick end to Mercedes and Hamilton's reign. The following season saw the team produce an awful car and struggle to get by. This season seems to be a repeat of the last with a car that started out okay and has quickly devolved. It isn’t just the team's car that's presented an issue, Mercedes lack of team unity, failure to adapt, and old mindset have put the team at a severe disadvantage and made scenes like an Alpine overtaking a Mercedes an everyday affair.
One of the things that has stuck out about the team in recent races is their seeming lack of unity and communication. While it is normal for a team's two drivers to have different strategies it’s expected the teams will actually communicate. Instead Mercedes keeps both drivers in the dark, which actually led to an accident in Qatar and constant complaints about each other. George Russel in particular is a big fan of the can I pass argument on his radio. While dissenting to orders works for teams like McLaren, Mercedes has demonstrated they don’t have a united strategy or even a vague idea of one. In São Paulo Russel asked who should pass where as he was under threat from Sainz what he received was a message equating to we don’t know we can’t figure it out just yet. This lack of planning and priorities between drivers works well when a team is doing well but now that they aren’t the fastest there has to be some give and take or they risk losing valuable positions and points.
Another way the past greats have been falling behind is in their inability to adapt. Both strategically and in the actual car we’ve seen repetitive strategies and an unwillingness to commit to adaptations. Strategically we’ve seen Mercedes adapt to their grid spot in a unique way a grand total of once with Hamilton in Spa c where they tried an undercut heavy strategy. It truly was a solid strategy but it wasn’t the right track or conditions for it leading to the result being less than likely expected. After this no matter the qualifying spot the team ran a very straight forward strategy in line with the rest of the grid. The issue with running this strategy is most of the rest of the grid has a much faster car.
Mercedes cars have also remained largely unadaptable. The major change made this season which actually saw the car gain some impressive speed turned out to be a floor too low causing a disqualification. While no one other than Mercedes engineers know the real changes made after the DSQ it’s clear it was likely a return to what they had earlier in the season as we’ve seen the same slow speeds and drag heavy cars. The rule changes in 2020 killed a lot of the advantage Mercedes held and since then the cars have had consistent worsening drag issues. Adaptation is crucial in a sport as competitive as formula one and Mercedes just can’t seem to adapt.
The previously discussed issues both stem from one place which is a mindset stuck in the past. After reaching the peak of Everest it’s easy to look down and think I can just do it again, the truth is the shifting wind means the path to the top will never look the same twice. Mercedes reliance on old design, ways of management, and strategies that don’t work for them anymore. In a weird way the thing damaging them most is the massive weight of legacy. The desire to prove they still have a place among the greats, and the desire for redemption after their greatest driver was robbed of a record breaking win come together to give us a team who has never really moved on from that peak.
In the ever famous myth of Icarus we learn about a young man given the tools to his own freedom yet in his striving for more he ends up falling but before this fall he graced the sun. Mercedes have tasted the champagne and graced the highest of highs yet like Icarus fell just short, now they stay stuck with feathers and broken dreams on the back of a team firmly stuck in the past killing their future.
