Formula 1: Is this 2016 all over again for Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton?

For the first time since the 2016 Formula 1 season, Lewis Hamilton has been seriously challenged by a Mercedes teammate. Will history repeat itself?

In the first season of Formula 1‘s V6 turbo hybrid era, the 2014 season, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport dominated, as their two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, combined to win 16 of the season’s 19 races. They both finished in the top two of the driver standings.

Hamilton ended up winning the 2014 championship over Rosberg by 67 points (384 to 317). He earned 11 victories throughout the season while Rosberg earned five.

The following season, Mercedes were dominant once again. For the second consecutive season, Hamilton and Rosberg combined to win 16 of the season’s 19 races, this time with Hamilton earning 10 victories and Rosberg earning six. Hamilton won the championship over Rosberg by 59 points (381 to 322).

But in the 2016 season, things changed, not from a team standpoint — Mercedes still dominated — but from a driver standpoint.

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Rosberg extended what was a three-race winning streak to end the 2015 season to a seven-race winning streak by winning the 2016 season’s first four races before a first-lap crash involving both him and Hamilton in the season’s fifth race, the Spanish Grand Prix, truly sparked the tension between the two drivers.

Rosberg went on to win the 2016 championship by five points (385 to 380) over Hamilton. He earned nine victories throughout the 21-race season while Hamilton earned 10. But just days after he won the championship, he retired from Formula 1.

As far as the battle between Mercedes teammates is concerned, a similar trend appears to be developing this season.

After Rosberg retired following the conclusion of the 2016 season, Valtteri Bottas was named his replacement beginning in the 2017 season. In the 2017 season, Hamilton won the championship with 363 points and nine victories. He finished 58 points ahead of Bottas in the driver standings.

In fact, Bottas finished in third place in the driver standings with three victories, marking the first season of the V6 turbo hybrid that resulted in a Mercedes driver finishing outside of the top two in the standings and with fewer than five victories. Hamilton, meanwhile, earned nine victories throughout the season.

The 2018 season ended up being even worse for the 29-year-old Finn, as Hamilton earned 11 victories while Bottas did not earn any. Hamilton won the championship with 408 points while Bottas finished all the way down in fifth place in the driver standings with only 247 points. Team orders were even used on multiple occasions to prioritize Hamilton over his teammate.

But through the first four races of the 2019 season, something has clicked for the seemingly ex-“wingman”.

Bottas and Hamilton have both won two of the season’s first four races, and they both finished in second place in the two races which they did not win. Because of the fact that he recorded the fastest lap in the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, Bottas leads the 34-year-old Briton by one point (87 to 86) in the driver standings.

Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff has stated that regardless of what happens as far as results are concerned, the team will not allow the partnership between Hamilton and Bottas to deteriorate like the partnership (if you even want to call it that) between Hamilton and Rosberg did.

But is there still tension brewing within the Brackley-based team?

It is no secret that Hamilton is clearly frustrated by the fact that his teammate has already beaten him twice this season, and the fact that Bottas looks like an altogether new driver, both from the standpoint of his on-track performance and his attitude, has added fuel to this fire.

Whether or not Bottas can sustain this level of success that he has experienced so far this season will be key when it comes to whether or not he can truly challenge Hamilton for this year’s championship, which may be the determining factor regarding whether or not the relationship between the two drivers will turn sour.

After all, Rosberg won the first four races of the 2016 season and led Hamilton by 43 points (100 to 57) in the driver standings as a result of it. Bottas has never led Hamilton by more than eight points in the standings.

Following the run-in between himself and Rosberg in the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton won 10 of the 2016 season’s final 16 races, including the final four, while Rosberg only won five of them, illustrating clearly who the better of the two drivers was down the stretch.

So while Bottas has shown strength early on this season and appears to be capable of challenging Hamilton, he still needs to prove himself as the season progresses to be considered a legitimate threat to defeat his teammate. After all, he entered this season with just three career victories to his name.

If that happens, we could see a repeat of the 2016 season both from a results standpoint and from a relationship standpoint between the team Mercedes teammate regardless of what Wolff has stated, but if not, the tension within the team should be at a minimum like it has been since the start of the 2017 season.

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Could the 2019 Formula 1 season end up being the 2016 season all over again for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton? Will the relationship between Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas deteriorate like his relationship with Nico Rosberg did? Does Bottas have what it takes to stop Hamilton from becoming a six-time champion this year by winning the first championship of his Formula 1 career?

Of the 21 races on the 2019 schedule, 17 have not yet been contested, so don’t expect to know the answers to these questions for quite some time.

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