THE SWITCHBACK

Mercedes celebrate a fifth consecutive Constructor's Title

It was glory again for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, making it four titles in five years for the Brit and five in five for his team. Once again a story of what if for Sebastian Vettel, who was left to take silver once again.

Teams & Drivers

A mistake-laden 2018 put pay to Vettel's title chase, with Germany being the big one. Hamilton took 11 wins, including the one he inherited from Vettel at Hockenheim as he had the title wrapped up with two rounds to go.

Hamilton's consistency gave him the edge over Vettel despite an apparent early season struggle. Only one retirement, coming in Austria, was one of only four non-podium finishes as he took 11 of a possible 21 pole positions and matched that number with his win total. A truly brilliant season from Hamilton, and while he did receive assistance from his team and team-mate at times, his excellence cannot be denied. A fifth world championship was thoroughly deserved and, as much as it pains me to say it, will lead to him going do as an all-time great.

As spoken about previously Vettel let himself down in 2018. Car issues rendered him unlucky in 2017, but crashes with Bottas in France, Hamilton in Italy, Verstappen in Japan and one all on his own in Germany (his only retirement of the season), as well as a race costing lock-up in Baku and a penalty in Austrian qualifying, cost Vettel the title. Things will likely only become tougher in 2019, with young gun Charles LeClerc likely not happy to play the good team-mate in the way Kimi Raikkonen has, possibly leading to one more car for Vettel to battle.

It wasn't such plain sailing for the second Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas. The Fin ending the season without a win as well as a fifth-place finish in Abu Dhabi dropping him to fifth in the championship. An unlucky retirement with victory in his grasp at Baku, when a bit of debris caused a puncture, pretty much summed up his early season. He was forced to play, in the words of Toto Wolff, "wingman" to help Hamilton to the championship in the back half, however, he was susceptible to bits of poor and wreckless driving as the season went on. A much better showing in 2019 will be in order to hold off Esteban Ocon, who Wolff seemingly wants in the car by 2020.

Bottas' fellow Fin, Kimi Raikkonen rolled back the years, winning his first race since Abu Dhabi 2013 with victory in the USA, the first of three consecutive podiums. A great lap gave him a popular pole in front of the Tifosi at Monza, but the Mercedes of Hamilton stole away victory. He edged third in the championship but did a great job of assisting Vettel's title push to the last with his consistency, not finishing lower than sixth all year. 

Max Verstappen was the man that took Bottas' fourth spot away and finished two points shy of Raikkonen. An unbelievable end to the season helped him recover from a shocking start. The young Dutchman took podiums in the last five races and picked up 144 points from Spa onwards, with only Hamilton outscoring him in that period.

Daniel Ricciardo's equipment let him down in the battle of the Bulls. Eight retirements, with four coming in Belgium and beyond, saw his last Red Bull year turn into a nightmare. Retirements aside, the Aussie was just generally outperformed by his team-mate in the second half of the season. Highs include wins (and his only season podiums) at China and the elusive victory in Monaco, eventually getting his retribution for the 2016 slip-up. The smiliest man in F1 moves to Renault for next year, giving us one of the shocks of the year, but it likely won't give him any immediate success. Time will tell whether the risk will pay off. 

In the running for best of the rest, a huge crash for Nico Hulkenberg in Abu Dhabi couldn't take the seventh position from him. His team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. was 16 points worse off, finishing 10th as he waves goodbye to both Renault and Red Bull. Their haul of 122 points gave Renault their best of the rest spot of fourth.

A mixed year for Haas gave them fifth in the Constructors'. Kevin Magnussen drove well in spells for ninth in the championship, but once again his aggressive and sometimes dangerous style won him no fans in the paddock. Romain Grosjean was lucky to complete all 21 rounds as he struggled to 14th. There were rumours of him being dropped after he saw four retirements before Germany, including a crash under safety car at Baku and a silly bit of driving in Spain that lead to a pile-up. He survived that but could have been awarded a race ban towards the end of the season due to an accumulation of penalty points.

The rightful owners of fifth were Force India. However, bankruptcy and a subsequent mid-season take oversaw the team reform for the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. Force India's 111 overall points would have surpassed the 93 of Haas, however, with Sahara Force India being excluded and Racing Point Force India taking their place, 52 points saw them take seventh, six points off McLaren. Still, to come from last on zero points with nine of the 21 rounds remaining is an unbelievable achievement.

It was a turbulent year for their drivers as well. Sergio Perez played an instrumental part in the survival of the team, helping to place the old outfit into administration to force through a buyout from the Racing Point organisation. On-track, it was a good year for the Mexican, picking up eighth in the championship and a podium in Baku. Esteban Ocon's difficulty came in his quest to find a 2018 seat, long story short, he failed and will be reserve driver for Mercedes in 2019. He fell 13 points short of his team-mate to take 12th and a controversial collision with race leader Verstappen in Brazil likely did little to help any possible deal over the line. After only one retirement in a season and a half (27 races retirement free), coming in Brazil last year, seemed a distant memory as he clocked up five in 2018 alone.

Force India's off-track struggles played into the hands of McLaren, although their poor year was clear for all to see. 50 points and 11th place for Fernando Alonso saw him step away from F1 after the Abu Dhabi finale. A master at getting the most out of what little equipment he had, Alonso's finish perhaps flatter McLaren a little bit, although his public displeasure over the past few years certainly has not. Stoffel Vandoorne lost his seat after finishing almost 40 points behind his team-mate and being out-qualified in every round by Alonso, the first time that has happened since Alonso did it to then team-mate Nelson Pique Jr. in 2008. Vandoorne's blushes were spared a little when Alonso told the press of a fundamental issue on the Belgian's car that the two-time champion didn't suffer from himself. Hopefully, a completely fresh driver line-up is the start of a turn around for the eight-time Constructors' champions.

Despite taking only third last, Alfa Romeo Sauber's season will go down as a hugely successful one. The breakthrough of Charles LeClerc saw the Monegasque earn a move to Ferrari for 2019, scoring 39 points and taking 13th, a great debut season in a traditionally back-marking car. Although not doing enough to secure a 2019 F1 seat, Marcus Ericsson tied his best season in F1 with nine points (his first points since a haul of nine in 2015) and was unlucky not to score more. A brilliant qualifying in Brazil, claiming 7th, put him in a great spot, but his car fell apart on the way to the grid making it near enough undrivable.

Toro Rosso endured a year full of engine penalties and pointless Grand-Prix as they became little more than test dummies as Honda try to get their package in the best possible place for Red Bull in 2019. Despite a year of pain, it may well pay off as Toro Rosso will also benefit from any steps forward taken by Honda. Second last was their's rather comfortably, 26 points in hand over Williams. Pierre Gasly had a bit of an up-down year, with highlights like fourth in Bahrain, however, equally balanced by incidents like a first lap retirement in his home event at Paul Ricard. He took 15th but did enough to grab the Red Bull seat vacated by Daniel Ricciardo ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. It wasn't as productive a year for team-mate Brendon Hartley. Often just too slow to match Gasly, Hartley made several self-inflicted mistakes but was also subject to a big slice of bad luck on the level of early season Valtteri Bottas. He only managed four points and finished second bottom.

If McLaren's fall from grace was bad, then that of Williams is catastrophic. A total of seven points saw them cut adrift at the bottom of the table. A lucky eighth for Lance Stroll in Baku courtesy of the Red Bull's taking each other out was one of only two points finishes for the Canadian and responsible for 67% of Williams total haul. Sergey Sirotkin took a single point after an 11th place finish and Romain Grosjean's subsequent disqualification promoted him to 10th in Italy. Huge aerodynamic issues lead to little to no cornering ability and extra drag watered down the top quality Mercedes engine. Williams sure have a lot more work than most ahead of 2019, and it could be a long road back of one of the most iconic teams in the business. Personally, I'm a fan of Claire Williams and hope that she will be the one to turn things around and get Williams at least back to the midfield.

Races

Australia

The typically low action Australian Grand Prix got the season underway. Valtteri Bottas suffered a big accident in the third part of qualifying, leaving him 10th. Sebastien Vettel took the win, jumping Lewis Hamilton during the Virtual Safety Car period. Max Verstappen spun out of podium contention, finishing sixth, two places behind Daniel Ricciardo. A strong showing for the two Haas cars was halted with both drivers retiring after wheels weren't tightened sufficiently. Fifth for Fernando Alonso and ninth for Stoffel Vandoorne got the McLaren-Renault partnership off to a great start.

Bahrain

Bahrain produced the excitement to fully kick-start the season. Hamilton qualified fourth but dropped to ninth with grid penalties. He survived an early collision with Verstappen and made an outstanding triple overtake into turn one to fight back to third. Verstappen suffered a transmission failure after said collision with Hamilton, and an electrical shut down saw Ricciardo retire as well.

Bottas pushed Vettel to the flag but a bottled attempt at an overtake left the Ferrari man to take another victory. Raikkonen suffered a gruesome retirement, as he was given the all clear to pull away from a pit-stop while mechanics struggled to fit his left rear wheel. He subsequently ran over the leg of one of the pit crew causing a severe break.

Despite two retirements, Red Bull did have a front-runner in Bahrain. Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly clinched fourth with an outstanding drive with his Honda engine and was quick to parody Alonso's "now we can fight" statement from Australia. These events don't even scratch the surface of all the wheel-to-wheel racing throughout the field in the brilliant race.

China

Strategy was the winner in China, a Red Bull double-spot completed to perfection gave both of their drivers the advantage over the Mercedes' and Ferraris who chose to stay on worn tyres during a safety car period, brought out by the two Toro Rosso's colliding at the hairpin. Ricciardo took a comfortable win but Verstappen hit Vettel at the hairpin, receiving a penalty. That drooped the Dutchman from fourth to fifth but he lost time due to a spin as a result of the crash. Vettel limped home to finish eighth with his team-mate Raikkonen taking third. Bottas fought to second while Hamilton inherited fourth from Verstappen.

Azerbaijan

Next up, the drama increased as F1 headed Azerbaijan. A typically dramatic start saw Ocon retire with damage after hitting the wall due to a collision with Raikkonen after the Frenchman turned in on the Ferrari at turn three. Alonso limped back to the pits on only his left side tyres after Hulkenberg caused a collision between himself, Alonso and Sirotkin, Sirotkin retired with suspension damage due to the incident. Magnussen also suffered two punctures and Perez, along with Raikkonen, had wing damage, causing a flurry of pit lane activity. The safety car was needed for the stricken cars and all the debris.

Hulkenberg was next to retire, losing the back end of his car and hit the turn four wall. The very close battle between the Red Bull's that had gone on since Hulkenberg's lap 11 crash. It came to a head on lap 40, as Verstappen moved in the braking zone of turn one to block Ricciardo. Ricciardo was unable to stop and ran into the rear of his team-mate, taking both of them out and forcing another safety car. Grosjean extended the safety car period as he spun into a wall while trying to warm his tyres.

Eventually, the race got back underway after eight laps. Vettel made a lunge on race leader Bottas into turn one, but locked up and dropped behind Perez's Force India to fifth. The drama wasn't over there neither, as Bottas hit some debris left on the track from the Red Bull crash, puncturing a tyre and forcing him to retire. Hamilton inherited the lead, with Raikkonen taking second and Perez taking third for the second time in Baku.

The madness helped Stroll to a Williams' season best of eighth, and gave Toro Rosso's Hartley his first career point in 10th. Charles LeClerc completed a brilliant drive to find himself in sixth at the checkered flag for his first career points.

13 finished, with Bottas classified but not finishing and six non-classified retirees in a race that made anyone turning their back on F1 fall in love again. A second race of the season contender in two years for Azerbaijan... Well done Baku!

A fantastic year all in all, despite worries of dirty air ruining the racing and team-orders getting in the way, plenty of action throughout gave us a pleasant surprise. However, this only whets the appetite for 2019, where a number of exciting driver changes, an engine supplier switch for Red Bull and a slight regulation tweak will hopefully shake things up to give us even more action in the year to come.