How COVID-19 played a part in Mercedes' domination

Mercedes' march to its seventh title double has looked as serene as ever in 2020. Ahead of the final three races of the season, it has scored 12 wins and 13 poles - only losing its 100% record in qualifying at the last race in Turkey.

But, had the campaign started as expected in Australia, Formula 1's dominant squad might well have run into a "painful" problem.

Unlike its predecessor, with which it shares much of its design DNA, the W11 had been the class of the field in winter testing. It topped the times at both tests at Barcelona back in February, where Mercedes stunned onlookers with the innovation it had packed onto the car - DAS, in particular - ahead of a season that was supposed to be the last before F1's latest rules revolution came into effect.

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But, despite its headline pace, the W11 had a clear weakness. An engine failure hit Valtteri Bottas during his running in the first test and Lewis Hamilton missed more time when one of his runs during the second was struck by an oil-pressure anomaly. The team had to swap engines twice, while customer team Williams had to change power units three times over four days.

Mercedes had hinted ahead of testing that it was having some trouble with its updated engine, with High Performance Powertrains boss Andy Cowell (who has since announced he is leaving Mercedes after a period of transition) saying it was "fighting a few little issues as ever".

The team was nevertheless very pleased with the work it had done to address the cooling weaknesses that cropped up in 2019 and felt it was a significant step forwards in terms of power. But, as the teams flew to the season-opener down under that never was, the reliability problems remained - despite a fix for the bearing problems that had struck during the second test being introduced.

"To be fair, COVID came at a very good time because that engine was in a lot of trouble at race one, as it would have been - there was a problem that [HPP] just struggled to find out," says Mercedes chief designer, John Owen.

"Literally they needed a day longer that they didn't have. Anyway, the race season didn't start and immediately they managed to zero in on the problem. But that would have been quite painful for us if that had been the first race. We were quite fortunate there."

All F1 squads had to shut down for 63 days during the spring COVID-19 lockdowns, as part of the urgent cost-saving measures. The various engine divisions had to do likewise, but for 49 days. All of this was built into the four-month gap between the aborted Melbourne event and the season finally getting underway in Austria, where Mercedes ultimately crushed its opposition.

"They felt a bit wounded and got beaten up for the fact that they didn't have the best engine last year, seemingly. They decided they weren't happy with that. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears going into the engine" John Owen

It had used the unexpected time well - both on the aerodynamic side and on the worrisome engine. At the time, Mercedes said the new spec engine that came to Austria was "because we have made reliability updates since [Melbourne]".

A team statement added: "They are the product of the time we have been able to work since Melbourne, minus the shutdown, and we hope they stand us in good stead ahead of this busy opening phase of the season."

They certainly did. Other than the sensor problems that gave Mercedes a scare in the season-opener, reliability problems have not plagued the W11 as might have reasonably been feared had the season got underway as expected - the team losing just one finish, Bottas at the Eifel Grand Prix, to a power unit problem.

As Jake Boxall-Legge explains in our 70th anniversary special edition, the W11 has proved to be excellent. It broke F1's lap speed record at Monza and has returned Mercedes' performance advantage over its opposition to levels it had not enjoyed since the first three years of the turbo hybrid era. The supertimes average gap between Mercedes and Ferrari in 2019 was 0.149 seconds, now it's up to 0.683s over Red Bull, but was around 1% at the start of the season.

This incredible achievement was the result of Mercedes essentially committing to throwing everything it had at its 2020 design during its run of defeats during the middle phase of 2019. But the initially problematic engine upgrade was a response to Ferrari's controversial superiority in the power stakes in recent years. That advantage was (also controversially) wiped away ahead of the season with the Italian squad's settlement with the FIA.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has previously explained how the push his squad felt it needed to make to stay ahead in 2020 led to an "irony" that meant it was "pushed by some of our competitors to absolutely new levels". Owen explains how that drive was felt on the engine side.

"They felt a bit wounded and got beaten up for the fact that they didn't have the best engine last year, seemingly," he says. "They decided they weren't happy with that. And they've really tried very hard there. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears going into the engine and a lot of nervous energy being lost over the time."

As it has now secured history for Mercedes and Hamilton, it is worth considering how one of F1's most impressive cars came to be - and just how things could've gone differently but for the strange circumstances of 2020. The W11 was Mercedes' almighty answer to an ever-growing threat, which has resulted in another season of domination, while the threat has essentially vanished.

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Although the car will be largely carried over to 2021, the upcoming downforce cuts will inevitably bring speeds down. So, as F1 heads off to the final three races of this most unusual of seasons, it is entering the true swansong of a remarkable machine.