Top man Mercedes: 'This is the biggest threat for us'

Mercedes won the constructors' title for the seventh time in a row this year. It shows that the team is supreme and always does a little better than their competitors. This while Formula 1 are always looking for ways to make it more difficult for Mercedes and to bring the field closer together. However, this is not necessarily a threat to the team, it is self-satisfaction.

At the top of the pyramid

The coming years will see a lot of changes in Formula 1. There will be a new regulation starting in 2022 and later new engines will be introduced. However, this is future music, because in 2021 it will remain largely the same which opens the way for Mercedes to go for their eighth title. What may have an impact next year is the budget cap.

According to the technical director of the team, James Allison, all these changes are not a threat to Mercedes, but a motivation. "We're happy at the top of the pyramid now," he says in the ESPN podcast. The changes "they don't have Mercedes written on them -- they have at their heart the idea that they don't want a pyramid, they want a continuous churn of teams that are capable of winning one day and not winning the next, and for each weekend to be unpredictable."

"But if you are in the position we are currently in, then it doesn't feel that way, it feels like this is a set of rules that are designed to try to make sure a team like us can't exist in the future", but that isn't a problem in itself, said Allison. "There is nothing more motivating for this group of people than to set to this new challenge and go, 'We'll show you! We'll show you that we will not go quietly into the night!'"

"That's the thrill for us now, to take this regulatory challenge and, as we have done with previous ones, try to show afresh what we are made of and that we are a team that just wants to try to do the best it possibly can. With luck, that best is good enough to be at the front. If you can win so many titles, perhaps the biggest danger is complacency."

The pitfall

But Allison and Mercedes remain at all times aware of the risk that their success story may suddenly come to an end, as other teams are not sitting still. That's why they keep reminding themselves that what they're doing isn't self-evident. "So it's really reminding each other every single year that the next year will only be a success if we earn it and that we need to ignore all the voices off stage that are busy telling the world that our success next year is a guaranteed thing and that we only need to show up in order for it to happen."

In other words: Mercedes is based on the premise that nothing is self-evident and that complacency will get them nowhere. Commitment and focus, that's what counts where any form of arrogance should play absolutely no role.