Mercedes 2018 championship celebrations

Pictures: Hamilton and Bottas celebrate fifth championship at Mercedes base

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Mercedes have celebrated winning their fifth consecutive Formula 1 constructors’ championship at their team factory in Brackley and engine development centre in Brixworth.

Drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas joined the team to mark its fifth consecutive double success. Mercedes drivers have also won the last five drivers’ championships: Hamilton in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018, and Bottas’s predecessor Nico Rosberg in 2016.

The team put all five of its championship-winning cars and V6 hybrid turbo power units on display.

Hamilton, who won his fifth drivers’ title this year, told the team “I just want to take a moment to say thank you everyone. I’m just incredibly proud of everyone’s hard work.

“I know it’s been a tough year for everyone here, so thank you all. It’s been a privilege and absolutely awesome to drive this car.

“All the cars before have been pretty great to drive, but this has been the car that I’ve enjoyed the most in all those years. I felt like it enabled me to bring something out of myself that I knew was there, but not every year you’re able to extract it within the car – this is from all the hard work you have done.”

Team principal Toto Wolff told the assembled staff: “We all embrace the challenge, we take our competitors seriously and we all try to continuously progress as human beings and as professionals in our jobs in order to raise the bar. This constant striving for improvement, trying to be better every single day, is exactly what makes you win championships.”

Red caps were handed out to all the team’s staff to pay tribute to non-executive director Niki Lauda, who is recovering from a lung transplant earlier this year.

“Today, we’re also paying special tribute to Niki,” said Wolff. “Niki, you probably would have told us that we shouldn’t be so “damn emotional” today, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that we miss you and very much look forward to seeing you again soon.”

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Pictures: Mercedes’ fifth championship double celebrations

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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36 comments on “Pictures: Hamilton and Bottas celebrate fifth championship at Mercedes base”

  1. Where can i get one of those t-shirts?

      1. Ahahah well said! @phylyp

  2. The 2014 nose was ugly, so glad they switched to the better looking (and obviously faster) nose for the remaining years.

    Also, a rough estimate tells me there’s about 1000 people in that picture. I’m sure people at the non-manufacturer teams look at that and wonder if they’d have that headcount combined. :-)

    1. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
      13th November 2018, 16:26

      I really liked the W05, it was properly distinctive and obviously not wanting for pace either.

      At the time it was also the best looking nose on the grid, all the other cars had rude appendages apart from the Ferrari which looked like a hoover.

      1. @ftruth – that’s true, in context it was probably the better of a bad bunch (probably along with RBR cleverly camouflaging their tabbed nose).

      2. I liked the W05 as well. It looks like such a neat little car compared to those that came after it.

    2. @phylyp not sure about the faster part, obviously the cars were faster, but the 2014 nose gets more air under the car allowing for higher efficiency and more downforce, they swapped noses due to the rule change

      1. @forzarogo – thank you for correcting me, I’d forgotten about the rule tweak for aesthetic reasons.

  3. they should have them in their official shop, here
    might not be there so soon, but usually they put them there.

  4. Also, congratulations to Mercedes – they were absolutely dominant in 2014-2016, and irrespective of who had the better car in 2017/2018, they saw off the competition in very capable fashion both those years.

  5. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
    13th November 2018, 16:26

    I really liked the W05, it was properly distinctive and obviously not wanting for pace either.

    At the time it was also the best looking nose on the grid, all the other cars had rude appendages apart from the Ferrari which looked like a hoover.

  6. Is that grey-shirted person actually Nico? (The bottom-middle image.)

    1. That doesnt look like Nico, and he hasn’t posted anything about it on this social media accounts.

  7. Why are the cars in the wrong order?

    1. @unitedkingdomracing – top image, they’re mostly in order, except that this year’s car is at the center, isn’t it? (If I’m seeing them right).

      However, in this picture, I can’t determine an order.

      1. @phylyp From the one nearest to the camera to the furthest: W06-W08-W09-W07-W05
        @unitedkingdomracing

        1. Thank you, @jerejj 👍

  8. Make Mercedes Great Again!

  9. They won 45.5% of races in which they participated. From 1954 to 2018.
    Impressive

    1. Good grief, that is absolutely amazing @kirk foster.
      How does that compare to the red team though?

    2. Also Hamilton has won 49 races out of 99 of the current V6 hybrid era.

  10. not to start anything, but are they taunting Ferrari with waving the red hats?
    or more like “hats off” to them?

    1. Nike lauda homage I think.

  11. not to start anything, but are they taunting Ferrari with the red hats?
    or more like “hats off” to them ?

    1. Oh yeah totally taunting Ferrari big time. In your face kind of a thing. Nothing to do whatsoever at all to paying tribute to Niki Lauda who wears a red cap as well. I am sure he is also taunting Ferrari. Cause he used to drive for Ferrari at one time you know.

      Ah I crack myself up at times. It’s all mentioned in the article. Red cap = Lauda tribute because of lung transplant

      1. sorry, my bad – skipped a whole paragraph somehow.

        1. and Niki physically ‘tips his cap’ to a driver or team that has impressed him. So its the red cap and the ‘tipping of the cap’ gesture.

  12. How much of a loss are Mercedes running at.

    That 1 pic shows it’s time for a change. These engines are purely for manufacturer domination.

  13. Congratulations to Mercedes – quite an achievement. Lewis hit 154 wins and poles this year making the 2nd driver to break the 150 mark.

    He won’t be able to reach Schumi’s 159 but he could close out the season with 156 if scores a pole and a win at Abu Dhabi.

    He added 20 poles and wins this season – if he keeps this up, he’ll not only pass Shumi’s incredible record but leave it in the dust. Is it even conceivable for a driver to hit a double century of poles and wins?

    1. @freelittlebirds – I hadn’t looked at wins+poles before, interesting way of measuring success.
      I think I heard a stat that Hamilton has something over 50% of all the wins in the hybrid era. 10 wins per season would do it I suppose, which is what he’s been achieving. Scary.

      1. Yes, 50 wins from 99 races.

  14. BMF66 – but the PR is priceless.

    1. Sorry – This was meant to be a reply to the BMF66 comment: “How much of a loss are Mercedes running at.”

  15. They didn’t fit the new fat tires to the new cars? Why?

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