With Mercedes achieving a 1-2 finish on every race this year the criticism has landed firmly on Ferrari’s lack of pace, and to a sense the overpromising “feeling” that came from the Italian team during Winter testing. But are all the other teams underperforming, or is it Mercedes that’s overachieving?

There are several factors that need to be in check for a team to be successful in Formula 1. Drivers, chassis, reliability, strategy calls, operational accuracy and technical development. Needless to say all of the above are directly affected by budget and thus its natural for the better funded teams to lead the field. There have been exceptions to the rule but they have been just that, exceptions.

Mercedes, despite what the results might suggest, haven’t actually had the fastest car in all 5 races. In fact they probably had a clear edge in Australia and China, while soundly beaten in pace in Bahrain and arguably in Baku. For Spain the team brought an update which was rumoured to be worth up to 0.4s a lap and gave them an advantage in Sector 3 which they didn’t have during winter testing. It seems this year they have managed to dominate the one menace they have carried with them throughout the Hybrid era – slow speed corners. This will bond extremely well for Monaco too.

How did they achieve this? There is an excellent piece on this by a “secret aerodynamicist” over at the BBC who predicted Ferrari’s issues and Mercedes advantages right off the bat during Winter testing. To cut his explanation short he predicted that Mercedes had a concept that would allow it to keep on developing without hurting the car’s balance while maximising peak downforce during and throughout the season – where by Ferrari wouldn’t be able to follow suit because their chosen concept wouldn’t allow for development flexibility. In other words, Ferrari are stuck with what they have and with very little opportunity to make any real gains on downforce levels.

But if an external aerodynamicist could quickly work out at the Ferrari concept was different but limiting from the start – why couldn’t Ferrari? Did they choose to go down this particular design road because they believed their peak downforce would counter the development that other teams would gain over the season? Or did they think that they could develop their car further? Perhaps they weren’t even aware of the limitations of their aero philosophy? Either way, the blame lies solely with Ferrari.

Coming back to Mercedes and what we need to appreciate with the German team whether you are a fan or not, is the sheer skill and talent they have of performing at their very best. Even when the car isn’t the fastest they always seem to find a way to victory.

In Bahrain some will argue that there were lucky to grab the win and they were – but to some that is simply Mercedes winning the reliability race. It’s no good having a fast car if it can’t finish a race. Point to Mercedes.

In Baku Charles LeClerc looked good for pole but we will never know if that would be enough for the win. This is clear as notably while Sebastian Vettel could keep up with the Mercedes in race pace, he wasn’t necessarily fast enough to mount an attack so strategy would have probably played its part. LeClerc bottled it when it mattered the most in qualify and so this came down to driver error. We have seen this all too often from Vettel during 2018.

The big question is, can Mercedes keep on winning and perhaps achieve what McLaren failed to achieve in 1988 and win all races in a season? Seems a bit like hype and unlikely, BUT it is nevertheless still possible with some luck.

Toto Wolff is quick to dismiss such a feat:

“It’s been quite a journey in this team,” Wolff said, “and what I have discovered is that the energy levels, contentment, is higher than ever.

“We enjoy what we do and we want to continue to push the needle and that is an exciting objective. And if you find your purpose within the group that is on that journey, you have a very strong force.

“When you walk around, what you hear and see is content people who enjoy what they do.

“It is a calm, positive atmosphere and a tremendous privilege to be in a situation where we have won five championships and we have earned the possibility of going for a sixth one that hasn’t been done before, that hasn’t been done before in any sport on a world championship level and that is something that unites us on that journey.”

Hamilton’s answer to the same question was:

“Who knows? We definitely didn’t expect to come into the season and win all five races and that is already incredibly encouraging for everyone.”

“Everyone is pushing so hard which is great to see and it really is a phenomenal group. No one is overly confident. We are discussing what we can do better.”

“It is the strongest team there has ever been, I think. It will be very, very hard to break that.”

The jury is out on this one but with a team like Mercedes who are excelling in the delivery of every aspect required to be champs, I don’t see how Ferrari can touch them.

What do you think?