First Constructors' Title
The car that kick-started Mercedes' hybrid-era dominance.
The Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, originally known as the Mercedes F1 W05, is a highly successful Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Bob Bell, Aldo Costa, Geoff Willis, Loïc Serra, Russell Cooley, John Owen, Mike Elliott and Jarrod Murphy to compete in the 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship. The cars were driven by World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, both of whom remained with the team for a second and fifth season, respectively. The F1 W05 was designed to use Mercedes's new 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged engine, the PU106A Hybrid.
Quick Facts
- Season
- 2014
- Championship won
- Constructors' Championship (First)
- Key drivers
- Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg
- Car model
- Mercedes W05 Hybrid
- Engine type
- V6 Turbo-Hybrid Power Unit
- Win count
- 16 out of 19 races
Lore & Background
The chassis was named 'F1 W05 Hybrid' to represent the fifth Formula One car that Mercedes had constructed since, while the hybrid was marked to recognize the utilization of fully integrated hybrid power units. The car made its competitive debut at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, the opening round of the 2014 season. After participating in 18 rounds of Grand Prix racing, the car made its final competition appearance at the season finale race – the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before retirement.
As the first Mercedes F1 car of the hybrid era of the sport, this was the car that kick-started an unparalleled period of dominance by Mercedes in the sport that lasted for eight years, delivering 81 Grand Prix wins for Hamilton, 20 for Rosberg (until 2016) and 10 (from 2017) for Valtteri Bottas. It became the second Mercedes F1 car to win the drivers' title in 59 years and the first to win the constructors' title.
Reader's Guide
The car was an instant success, with Nico Rosberg winning the season-opening by 27 seconds. Lewis Hamilton went on to win the, , and successively. The car was said to be so dominant because of an innovative design feature on the PU106A, the car's engine. Sky Sports F1 reported that the compressor and turbo were packaged at opposite ends of the internal combustion engine, which gave them the edge in packaging, aerodynamic efficiency, and battery usage.
Lewis Hamilton described it as the best car he has ever driven. At the halfway point of the season, Mercedes had secured all but one win – in Canada, won by the Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo – and one pole, when Williams driver Felipe Massa did so in Austria. This came after Hamilton won the and Rosberg won the Monaco, Austrian and German Grands Prix. The team clinched the Constructors' Championship at the, the 16th race of the season.
In the nineteen races, the F1 W05 Hybrid took sixteen wins (eleven for Hamilton and five for Rosberg), eighteen pole positions (seven for Hamilton and eleven for Rosberg), twelve fastest laps (seven for Hamilton and five for Rosberg), twelve front row lockouts and eleven 1–2 finishes.
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