Mercedes domination continued this past weekend in Austria and the trickle-down effect is becoming more and more prevalent at the top of the grid. Nico Rosberg tacked on his third victory of the season to go along with his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton’s four Grand Prix wins. Renault has managed to steal away one victory with Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo pulling off the upset a few weeks ago in Canada.
Mercedes Trickle-Down
Though Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel are third, fourth, and fifth in the Drivers’ Championship behind Rosberg and Hamilton the other Mercedes powered teams are starting to put the pressure on those men in front of them. Williams, McLaren and Force India have been great over the current season and the drivers from all three of those Mercedes powered teams occupy the following six positions in the Drivers’ Championship.
Felipe Massa put his Williams Mercedes on pole this past weekend and his teammate Valtteri Bottas started right alongside him locking out the front row. Massa also set the fastest lap in Canada before an unfortunate wreck with Sergio Perez late in the race ended the top five run they both had going. Bottas picked up Williams’ first podium of the year at the Red Bull Ring this weekend. Bottas is seventh and Massa is currently ninth in the points so far this season.
Perez is also racing with Mercedes power along with his teammate Nico Hulkenberg for Sahara Force India. Perez sat on the podium in Bahrain and aside from some technical issues causing a DNS in Malaysia, a retirement in Monaco and the crash in Canada he has scored points in all other races. Hulkenberg hasn’t had the qualifying speed but has raced brilliantly and has scored points in every single race of the 2014 season. Thanks to that Hulkenberg is the best of the rest sitting sixth in the points right now and Perez is 11th.
McLaren-Mercedes has been in a little of a decline the last few seasons but they are still right in the middle of the fight. Jenson Button occupies the eighth spot in the Drivers’ Championship and his rookie standout teammate Kevin Magnussen is 10th. McLaren started off with a bang in Australia. After the disqualification of Ricciardo it put both drivers on the podium, Magnussen very impressive with second and Button getting third. They scored points again in Malaysia, struggled in Bahrain, China, and Spain, but returned to the points in Monaco and Montreal. Magnussen continued to score points in Austria with a seventh place finish and Button just missed out coming in 11th.
The bottom line of all this is that while these teams might have been also mid-field teams the last few years they are starting to become week in and week out podium contenders and you have to think that the Mercedes power plant and reliability are the biggest contributors to their success. All six of those drivers combined have only four retirements (not counting the last lap wreck with Massa and Perez) and one DNS. To put that in perspective Vettel has three retirements all on his own. How much longer can the Renault Red Bulls stay ahead of these hungry up and comers with the reliability issues they are plagued with? Can Alonso keep willing and manhandling his underpowered, underperforming Ferrari to the front for the rest of the season? Basically, if you’re not driving a Mercedes, what is now in your rearview mirror will most likely be in front of you sometime soon.
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