Stepping out of his shadow

The 2023 and 2016 Formula 1 seasons share a notable aspect: in win-percentage terms a single team in each – Red Bull and Mercedes at 95.5% and 90.5% respectively – achieved dominance comparable with McLaren’s 93.8% strangling of the 1988 campaign.

But surely for all apart from the most ardent of Max Verstappen fans, last season offered precious little intrigue. With no title battle beyond the early rounds of a very long season, it became historically repetitive.

The 2016 campaign isn’t viewed as such – even though by then plenty of fans were tiring of Mercedes’ dominance. This is because, unlike Sergio Pérez’s short-lived challenge to Verstappen last year, both drivers from the Silver Arrows squad had a shot at title glory. Lewis Hamilton versus Nico Rosberg was compulsive viewing.

The Hamilton/Rosberg battle had so much needle – including internecine contact – that what followed when Rosberg retired and was replaced by Valtteri Bottas could never achieve such billing. Indeed, reducing internal tensions and stabilising the Mercedes ship was the priority of team boss Toto Wolff when he gave Bottas the nod. Five seasons of relative calm ensued as Bottas mostly performed the role of compliant number two.

Valtteri’s replacement, George Russell, is an altogether different prospect.

There’s not been the same levels of palpable hostility as the Rosberg years – Hamilton and Russell have only shared one podium when Mercedes has been victorious, reducing the opportunities for public displays of cap-throwing pettiness/glorious shithousery (delete as you see fit) – but Russell is unafraid to take his shot against Hamilton. The heir is already taking on the incumbent star. Now Hamilton is set to head to Ferrari for 2025, Russell is already anointed as Mercedes’ new team-leader-in-waiting.

The stakes are getting higher

Now, it wasn’t quite the same as Barcelona 2016, but the intra-Mercedes crash in the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix put what’s now the Black Arrows squad on similarly uncomfortable ground.