Paris (AFP)

Mercedes justifies each season a little more to be among the best in the history of Formula 1: in 2019, the German team won a sixth consecutive double drivers and manufacturers unpublished in the premier category of motorsport.

The title builders in pocket since the Japanese Grand Prix in mid-October, the Silver Arrows have doubled the bet with the British Lewis Hamilton at the US GP Sunday, with two more races to be played this season.

The German team is certainly far from the sixteen titles constructors and the fifteen pilot titles of Ferrari, but the Scuderia has missed none of the 70 seasons in the history of F1, inaugurated in 1950.

The Silver Arrows have played in the championship only twelve times, in 1954 and 1955 and since 2010, winning the title titles in 1954 and 1955 with the Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio (the constructors title did not exist) and both awards every year since 2014.

This last performance allows them to dethrone Ferrari, sacred six times as manufacturer between 1999 and 2004 but "only" five times with the drivers, with the German Michael Schumacher, on the same period.

- Vertiginous statistics -

The other statistics are equally breathtaking: in 208 GP, Mercedes has won 210 podiums, including 101 wins and 53 doubles, 110 pole positions and 73 best laps. That's 48.56% success, compared to 24.06% for Scuderia, which holds the record of 238 first places in 989 GP.

This year, the German team has also dethroned another great: Williams. With three doubles in the first three races of 1992, the British team could boast the best start to the season in history. But in 2019, Silver Arrows signed five in the first five GPs.

They have also come close to equaling another monument: McLaren and his record of eleven consecutive successes. It will be ten, like Ferrari in 2002. Except that this feat, the British and Italian teams have achieved only once, against three for the German team since 2015. Hegemon between 2010 and 2013, Red Bull has signed nine consecutive successes in the last year.

How to explain these results?

By men first. By Hamilton and Fangio, who gave Mercedes seven of its eight titles among the drivers. By the engineer and British leader Ross Brawn who structured the team between 2010 and 2013. By his current Austrian boss Toto Wolff. Austrian ex-pilot Niki Lauda, ​​with whom Wolff ruled until his death on May 20th. By the some 968 employees in 2018, according to figures released in October.

By its engine then. As a manufacturer and then as a full-fledged manufacturer, the brand invested heavily to develop its kinetic energy recovery braking system (KERS) introduced in F1 in 2009. This allowed it to be much better prepared than its competitors in the transition to a hybrid engine in 2014, year in which began its domination.

- 2020 looks good -

The rivals, however, are back and Ferrari now has a better engine. However, the Scuderia shows since 2017 unable to dethrone the silver arrows in the championship.

This is because the German team excels at all levels, with an extremely reliable single-seater (only four retirements since 2016) and a strategy that is often irreproachable.

Without disruption of the technical regulations, 2020 looks good for Mercedes. Especially since the gap in the championship early in 2019 has allowed him to develop his next racing car very early.

A major upheaval is promised against in 2021. The Silver Arrows will they then repeat the feat of 2017, when they became the first team to extend its domination beyond a major change of cars?

Money could be the nerve of war. In 2018, Mercedes spent some 350 million euros. But in 2021, the stables should be imposed a budget ceiling of 175 million dollars (157 million euros).

© 2019 AFP