In the run-up to the start of pre-season testing Motorsport Week brings you left-field reflections and stories of teams, drivers and reserves that will be part of the Formula 1 paddock in 2019.
Mercedes has swept up in the hybrid era and enters 2019 bidding to win a sixth successive title in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ battle, having won almost 80 of the 100 Grands Prix held in that time.
It was dominant in the first three of those five years but the new era got off to a bad start on the opening day of the first pre-season test at Jerez.
It was a messy start to testing as a couple of teams were absent while some others grappled with the new-for-2014 engines that were proving unreliable.
Mercedes, which was first out of the pit lane bang on 09:00, had enjoyed a clean start – but as Lewis Hamilton began his 18th lap in the W05 a front wing failure on the approach to Turn 1 pitched him nose-first into the barriers at high speed, with the debris from the shattered wing littering the pit straight.
Hamilton was fortunately uninjured and Mercedes was able to undertake repairs to ensure it could resume its test programme the following morning.
Mercedes barely missed a beat thereafter, its W05 proved quick and reliable, and went on to win 16 of the 19 Grands Prix, with Hamilton heading Nico Rosberg in the championship. Testing, after all, is just testing…
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