At the final F1 Grand Prix of the season at Abu Dhabi, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg completed another Mercedes 1-2, securing the title for Rosberg, with Hamilton in a close second with a massive 124 point gap to Daniel Ricciaro in third place.
The two Mercedes drivers have been at the top of F1 for the last three seasons, and whilst Hamilton is regarded as the better of the two drivers, with Championship victories in 2014 and 2015 and more races won during the 2016 season, Rosberg has always been hot on his wheels.
Mercedes really seem to have the perfect combination of two young, hungry, ambitious drivers and a car which is as dominant as any F1 team has been in recent years. As all F1 teams are limited in the amount of money they can spend on R&D, but it’s an understood rule that this isn’t strictly adhered to and whilst the in-house skill of a company such as Mercedes to be able to provide skilled automotive engineers to their F1 team is clear, does total dominance on the track convert to more sales in the showroom?
Toto Wolff, boss of the Mercedes Formula One team, revealed that the development work on the new V6 engine in it’s R&D development centre in England, to adhere to rule changes brought in during the 2015 season, has led to increased improvements in the road cars it manufactures in Germany.
Mr Wolff reveals ““Many people say technology transfer from F1 to the showrooms is just a marketing story. I can tell you from here it is not. The S-Class is running on a 6 cylinder turbo engine and the way we optimise our engines in terms of efficiency and power deployment translates directly into road cars. We are using some technology for cooling invented here and that technology is being used in the next generation of S-Class as well. It is all because of the development on track absolutely. So that is happening. It is a reality and this is why the hybrid 6 cylinder turbo engines are so important for us.”
The edge that Mercedes and Ferrari have by being the only F1 teams that are owned by car manufacturers is clear. Mr Wolff adds ““I would say today the success of the team is because we can call on the expertise in Germany. In Stuttgart they have a major research and development operation. They help us solve so many problems. They help us to innovate.”
Innovation also leads to sales, according to Auto Express, the Mercedes C-Class was the best selling ‘luxury’ car of this year in the UK, beating out their competitors BMW and Audi by a stretch and the A-Class in Spain is higher up the sales rankings then its comparable models and makes here in Spain.
It seems that whilst Mercedes are dominant on the F1 circuit their place as a leading innovator and car seller will also be quite dominant as well.
Check out the top selling cars in Spain in 2016 here >> Spain
Check out the top selling cars in the UK in 2016 here >> UK