Red Bull had an incredible 2023 season, managing to win 21 out of the 22 races, with the other race win going to Ferrari. This means that, for the first time in 18 years, no Mercedes-powered car has been able to win even a single race in a whole F1 season.
Mercedes has always been a pivotal member of F1. Even before entering into the sport with its own works team, the Brackley outfit has supplied various teams with their power units since 1994. They started with a one-year partnership with Sauber but then switched to McLaren in 1995.
The partnership with McLaren lasted for a strong 20 years, which saw Lewis Hamilton win the title with the Mercedes-powered car. The Silver Arrows also supplied Brawn GP for a year, claiming both the Driver’s as well as the Constructor’s championship in 2009.
Finally, in 2011, the German manufacturer entered into F1 with their own identity and went on to achieve immense success in the following few years. However, in 2023, not a single Mercedes-powered car managed to win a race.
Something like this had last happened in 2005, and since then, every season had at least one winner who was powered by the Silver Arrows. Even last year, George Russell managed to keep the record alive by winning the Brazilian GP. However, this year, things were quite different.
Not even Aston Martin or McLaren could keep the Mercedes record alive
While Mercedes never came close to winning a race, two separate teams powered by them did but failed to do so. Aston Martin made some huge progress at the start of the season and was briefly in contention for a race win. But it never happened.
Similarly, McLaren made a lot of headway towards the end of the season and were also fighting for race wins at a point in time. While Oscar Piastri did manage to win a race, it was unfortunately a Sprint Race and not an official Grand Prix race.
However, despite failing to win a single race, Mercedes managed to somehow cling on to P2 in the Constructor’s Championship. Under immense pressure from Ferrari, the Silver Arrows managed to put together a strong show in Abu Dhabi and claimed P2 by a mere 3-point difference.
