It might sound harsh but, given that Ferrari and McLaren haven’t won a Formula 1 world title since 2008, many neutrals have been looking to Mercedes to provide opposition to Red Bull. And, so far in this second ground-effect era, it has failed to do so.
For this year, a change in design concept created some hope that Mercedes could turn the tide. It still could but, as Alex Kalinauckas and Jake Boxall-Legge show in our cover feature, there are plenty of hurdles to overcome.
