The one area Mercedes is losing

Mercedes may have a perfect championship record in Formula 1's turbo hybrid era - which it looks set to extend in 2019 – but the main battleground that pushed it to the front of the grid is now being won by another team

Jonathan Noble Aug 29, 2019, 8:37 AM

Upd: Aug 29, 2019, 1:30 PM

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Mercedes may be set to maintain its perfect championship record in Formula 1's turbo hybrid era, but, as the championship bursts back into life this weekend, the fact it is not favourite to win at Spa offers a fascinating insight into how nothing ever stands still in F1's competitive landscape.

Ferrari's gains on the power front have been noticeable in recent years and have left it heading to Belgium, and its home race in Italy next week, widely acknowledged as the team to beat in those events - despite its winless season so far.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.