What Ferrari has to do to match Mercedes' dominance

What Mercedes has achieved by winning six consecutive constructors' championships is nothing short of phenomenal.

Yes, the commitment from the car manufacturer after it took over the Brawn team was enormous, and it has had all the investment needed to succeed, but comparing it to the equally well-funded Ferrari tells you it's about more than just budget.

It's about how you use it and the culture you create.

From the start of the 2.4-litre V6 turbo hybrid era in 2014, Mercedes has won 86 races to Ferrari's 17 and taken 92 pole positions to Ferrari's 20.

The other team to do any winning in this era, Red Bull, has just 14 victories and four pole positions. Ferrari is the main challenger, but Mercedes has been in a completely different league.

While Mercedes has occasionally dropped the ball, it has usually been there at the front and picked up the pieces when others failed. Ferrari, by contrast, seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time given the chance.

So what's the difference? To have sustained success over six years - and through the major aerodynamic rule changes in 2017 and the largely front-wing-focused tweaks this year - demands a team with a robust and workable structure.

That's what has ensured that Mercedes has made so many good decisions. If you look back to the final two years of Red Bull's dominance in 2012 and '13, the Mercedes was a quick car and capable of winning four races.

But the car was difficult on the tyres, using the rears quickly, and the team had to learn from that to be consistent. Now, it's a team that knows what it takes to have a good qualifying car, and what's required for a good race car, and it balances those demands better than anyone else.

To achieve that, you have to have as deep an understanding of why you win as why you lose and then react in the right way. Ferrari had a period when it was very good in the race and looked after the tyres, but in its efforts to get a better all-round and faster car it seemed to lose that. So it's not succeeding at improving the whole package to become that consistent winner - Ferrari strengthens one area and it comes at a cost in some other area.

Mercedes hasn't remained the same team throughout and it has thrived through plenty of technical personnel changes.

People such as Ross Brawn, Paddy Lowe and, this year, Aldo Costa (who heads to Dallara at the end of 2019) have moved on, but there's a huge group of personnel behind the leadership that ensures the quality is there. To keep the whole thing controlled, motivated, driven and to ensure egos don't become the dominant factor is no easy task.

By contrast, Ferrari has had a series of team bosses and technical leaders and not achieved a consistent direction. Some of those scapegoated by Ferrari or who weren't able to work so well in that environment - including Costa, pictured below with Toto Wolff, and James Allison - have thrived at Mercedes.

Wolff has offered strong leadership, ensuring the team looks at every detail, which adds up to results.

It's very easy for those in charge to cause problems for those in the team as no matter how strong the rank-and-file people are, it's those at the top that set the overall strategy.

Mercedes has the odd bad weekend, but it recovers; Ferrari seems unable to do that

Wolff seems to have done that well, avoided creating a blame culture and made good decisions throughout. This means that from the top down, everyone is pulling in the same direction and the very able people throughout the team can do their thing.

But most importantly, when the team has tripped up and we've criticised it, that's perhaps a tenth of the criticism the team turns on itself. Crucially, it's in a constructive way.

It's not about scapegoating, it's about learning, eliminating problems and improving. You cannot underestimate the importance of the team culture. That's the biggest motivation of the people and Mercedes has ensured this has never waned.

Those at the top don't lose sight of the big picture and they ensure the objective is not lost. It's a long way from how that team operated in the BAR and early Honda days, when it was very political and the priority seemed to be working out who to shift the blame onto.

What Mercedes has done is work hard to ensure that everyone understands their jobs, and that they have a clear understanding of what everyone else is doing as well.

This ensures there's real team spirit, with everyone realising that it's not just about their specific department - it's about everyone, from the design office to the race team to catering and PR, that contributes.

That's why the team has held together so well. But to sustain this for six seasons under such pressure is remarkable because there are always opportunities to panic if things go wrong. But not Mercedes.

It has also made the most of having Lewis Hamilton, who will go down as one of the best ever. By letting him have the leeway to be himself, the team ensures that from Thursday to Sunday he gives his best. This is an approach that allows everyone in the team to give 100%.

Looking at what you might call the 'second' drivers - Nico Rosberg and now Valtteri Bottas - they have never been that dominant force, despite what happened in 2016. But again, the team gets the best out of them and, by doing that, they have contributed more points to their six constructors' championships than any other team's 'second' drivers.

So many times in teams I've been in, the pressure gets on top of everyone and you can't see the wood for the trees. But Mercedes demands that 100% effort and allows that pressure release. Then suddenly they've won three, four, five, six double titles, and with each one the motivation turns to the next one.

Already, the drive to make it seven in 2020 is there. That's a very big thing, and not easy to achieve - after so much success, to keep that drive and ensure people don't even relax subconsciously.

Success on this scale always looks easy because you dominate, but to get there and stay there is anything but

Maybe if Mercedes gets seven, the question will be, can it win an eighth in 2021 despite another major regulation change? There's always a challenge to be taken on and buy into. That amazes me - the ability always to push on.

Coming back to the Ferrari comparison, it has lost many races this year. Reliability cost the team in Bahrain and Russia and it should have won the past five races, but managed only three.

By contrast, at the start of the season Mercedes couldn't put a foot wrong and won the first eight races. Mercedes has the odd bad weekend, but it recovers; Ferrari seems unable to do that.

Mercedes has also backed its technical philosophy, even when it's diverged from the approach of the majority. Once you start to copy a rival's philosophy - say the high rake of Red Bull - you have to look at everything differently.

If you took the Mercedes and went to high rake, you'd lose something like 20% of your downforce instantly because the car isn't designed to work that way. Then you'd have to scratch your head and spend a year working on it to get something that's not necessarily any better.

This team has its reasons for the approach it has taken, with a clear understanding that underpins that philosophy, and has stuck to it. That's to the credit of Allison, who has overseen cars that have been consistently strong. It's a winning formula, and he now deserves to be regarded as up there among the great technical leaders.

Mercedes has eclipsed the record of Ferrari from 1999-2004, when it won six constructors' titles and five drivers' crowns. In fact, you could argue that the team has taken some of what made Ferrari so great through that period with the input of Brawn, who was Mercedes' initial team principal when it took over what had been his eponymous team.

Wolff is a different character to Jean Todt, but both only wanted success and did everything they could to facilitate what was needed to deliver that. Ross was a great technical manager at Ferrari and had a great group of people around him, including Rory Byrne.

And even when it took a few years for that project to come together, the focus remained, there was no scapegoating and the success came. Again, there was total belief in the guy turning the steering wheel. If Michael Schumacher wanted to turn left, Todt facilitated it and Ross delivered it. It's the same at Mercedes.

Having worked with both Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello, who were Schumacher's team-mates at Ferrari during that period, both of them told me on many occasions that Michael was never great at engineering the car or setting it up. But if he said he needed more front end or rear end or whatever and you gave it to him, he went quicker. That's exactly what you want.

Hamilton is also a driver that you know will deliver the maximum if you give him what he needs, and that's an important part of the equation.

What Mercedes has done is astonishing.

Yes, I would like to see it challenged by more teams - perhaps a stronger Red Bull or a revitalised McLaren team - but you can only beat what's in front of you. Success on this scale always looks easy because you dominate, but to get there and stay there is anything but.

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