Mercedes has sealed its fourth consecutive constructors’ championship victory following Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the United States Grand Prix.
The Brackley-based team has retained the title it first won in 2014 and hasn’t lost since. Team executive director Toto Wolff praised the team’s factory members in Brackley and Brixworth in the UK for their achievement.
“I am so proud of what has been achieved,” said Wolff. “Winning across a rule change, something has never been done before in the sport, and doing it because every team member has dug deeper to find performance, been even more diligent on reliability and this has come together in the most special way.”
“We had the quickest car out there in the race today – Lewis did a faultless job, picking off Sebastian [Vettel] and then managing his one-stop strategy to perfection.”
“Valtteri [Bottas] had a tougher time: running in dirty air meant he couldn’t convert his good pace into what would have been a deserved podium finish.”
“But overall, we must be satisfied that we have got half of the job done today; one title down and one more still to win. Our target must to be to keep our foot on the gas and win each of the next three races.”
Hamilton said the team had made “an incredible push for this kind of performance this year.”
“We really pulled together more than I have experienced and seen over the last five years to create something quite special.”
2017 F1 season
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- Williams revenues rose in 2017 after Bottas deal with Mercedes
- Australian Grand Prix cost government £56 million last year
- “Grand Prix Driver” takes you inside McLaren’s nightmare final year with Honda
- Undisputed champion: 10 titles name Hamilton top driver of 2017
Dom (@3dom)
22nd October 2017, 22:03
Hats off to Mercedes! I know that they have dominated 2014-2016, but to still be up there across such a major regulation change is beyond commendable. That’s an achievement that I haven’t seen in my lifetime, which for me demonstrates how much of an achievement this championship win is. Commiserations to Ferrari because their effort to challenge at the front is also commendable and they have contributed massively to a closely fought season.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
22nd October 2017, 23:46
The longest period of domination is about 5 years so their domination is coming to an end
Patrick (@paeschli)
22nd October 2017, 22:04
Well deserved. Their reliability this year has been impressive.
Aldoid
22nd October 2017, 22:08
Well deserved. Great job!
skibomax (@skibomax)
23rd October 2017, 1:26
Mercedes, Hamilton and Bottas have set a new standard of integrity and competitiveness this year. They did not “win at any cost” a la Schumacher or Senna, but they did win!
KaIIe (@kaiie)
23rd October 2017, 13:08
Quite an achievement, but Wolff’s statement about “winning across a rule change, something has never been done before in the sport” doesn’t seem quite accurate. At least Ferrari did so in 1982/1983 (banning of ground effects) and McLaren in 1988/1989 (turbo > N/A).