The attention and focus this Sunday at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be on the duel between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to decide the drivers' championship. But a victory by either man would allow their team to make history. The Mercedes-GP pair have dominated the 2014 season, combining to win 15 of the 18 races so far. This has allowed Mercedes to equal the record for most wins by a team in a season, and a triumph at Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday will see them break new ground.
Here are some numbers to help tell the story of the Mercedes season, and how it easily could have been better:
15 - Victories for the team this season
The total has been achieved only three times before this year. McLaren in 1988 and Ferrari, twice, in 2002 and 2004, are the teams who racked up 15 wins.
McLaren’s came in 16 races, as they missed out only once, in Italy, and their winning percentage of 93.75 per cent will remain the highest, even if Mercedes win a 16th race this weekend.
Ferrari’s came in 17 races in 2002 and 18 in 2004, while the Mercedes season will come over a 19-race year.
Hamilton has won 10 times for Mercedes to Rosberg’s five. Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull Racing won the other three races.
In hindsight, Mercedes had the pace to win every race this year, and a mixture of unreliability, misfortune with safety cars and an inter-team collision were the circumstances that led to them being beaten.
In Canada, the team had run one-two until brake problems on both cars led to Hamilton retiring and Rosberg having to slow his pace.
Even then, it was only on Lap 67 of 69 that Ricciardo passed Rosberg’s struggling car, which still finished second.
In Hungary, Rosberg was leading by 10 seconds in damp conditions, which were quickly drying, when Marcus Ericsson crashed his Caterham.
The safety car came out just as Rosberg went past the pit entrance, and he had to spend a lap stuck behind the Mercedes-Benz SLK vehicle before he could pit to change from intermediate tyres to a dry compound.
The time lost saw him lose the lead and fall into the middle of the pack, being leapfrogged by, among others, Ricciardo, who had been able to pit immediately. The Australian took advantage of his good fortune to triumph, while Rosberg struggled to make up ground on a track where it is difficult to pass, even in the fastest car in the field.
In Belgium, the Mercedes pair had again been first and second, but on Lap 2 they made contact as Rosberg attempted to pass Hamilton around the outside at the end of the long straight.
The impact punctured Hamilton’s left-rear tyre and the damage to his car proved so bad he eventually retired. Rosberg, meanwhile, had damaged his front wing.
The German had the wing replaced when he made his first pit stop early and, as a consequence, had to change to a three-stop strategy while the rest of the field were largely doing two.
Despite disadvantaging himself heavily, he still had the pace to finish second, only three seconds behind Ricciardo and setting a fastest lap almost two seconds quicker than anyone else.
Thus, it is not difficult to envision a scenario in which Mercedes arrived in the UAE looking for a perfect season of 19 from 19.
Sixteen from 19 could be a new benchmark, but it could have been even better. No one in a level playing field has been able to get near the F1 W05 chassis and its powerful turbo 1.6-litre engine.
11 - One-two finishes for Mercedes in 2014 is an F1 record
McLaren in 1988 had the previous high mark, with 10, but Rosberg’s narrow victory ahead of Hamilton in Brazil earlier this month saw Mercedes move on to 11 for the season, and they can make it 12 this weekend, a result that would suit Hamilton as a top-two finish would guarantee him the title.
Only once this season, in Hungary, has a Mercedes driver not been in the top two, when Ricciardo finished ahead of the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.
Even then, Hamilton was third, and this came after he had started last from the pit lane due to a mechanical failure in qualifying, which had come before he had been able to set a time.
Given their speed advantage over the rest of the field, if the Mercedes cars have run trouble-free they have finished one and two, and that is supported by their results.
Reliability issues are behind the reason it is not more than 11 one-two finishes. Hamilton failed to finish three times and Rosberg suffered that fate twice.
30 - Podium finishes for the Mercedes drivers
Mercedes already have a record total, which can go up to 32 if their drivers finish in the top three this weekend.
Brazil, again, saw the previous record broken, which had stood at 29, achieved by Ferrari in 2004 when Michael Schumacher had 15 podium finishes and teammate Rubens Barrichello scored 14.
Mercedes’s success has been split evenly, with Hamilton and Rosberg both having 15 podium visits from the 18 races.
Hamilton has yet to be outside the top three if he finishes a race this year, while only once, in Hungary, when he was fourth, has Rosberg not graced the podium after passing the chequered flag.
Neither man, regardless of how they do in Abu Dhabi, will break the individual record for podium finishes in a season, with that standing at 17, set by Schumacher in 2002 when he finished every race in a top-three position.
17 - Pole positions Mercedes claimed in 18 qualifications
They can equal the record for most poles in Abu Dhabi.
Qualifying, where the cars run in low fuel, is the best indicator of the natural performance of the vehicle and a driver’s raw speed, so it is no surprise that Mercedes have excelled here.
Rosberg has taken 10 poles to Hamilton’s seven, and the German is already guaranteed to be the first recipient of the F1’s inaugural pole-position trophy, given to the driver who sets the most fastest times during the season.
If Rosberg or Hamilton tops the times in Saturday’s qualifying session at Yas Marina Circuit, they will go to 18 for the year and match Red Bull Racing’s 2011 tally, which had world champion Sebastian Vettel take 15 with Mark Webber claiming three.
Mercedes could have been going for a perfect 19 out of 19, but they missed out in Austria, where Hamilton ran wide and then spun during his pole attempts, while Rosberg made a minor error on his quickest lap, leaving him third behind the Williams cars of Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.
The German team are on a roll in qualifying and have locked out the front row of the grid at the past seven races. They have started first and second 11 times.
651 - Combined points scored by Hamilton and Rosberg
Ensuring that Mercedes arrive in the UAE as the constructors’ champions.
They have already set a record for points scored in a single season, having surpassed Red Bull’s 650 with their one-two in Brazil, which brought 43 points, the maximum score for a team in a race.
Another one-two in Abu Dhabi will see them extend that total to 694.
The team have scored points in every race, an achievement matched only by Williams, who are third in the standings, 397 points adrift of Mercedes. Mercedes’s lead over second-placed Red Bull is 278.
The championship was secured last month in Russia and represented the marque’s first F1 team title. It came with three races to spare.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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