Formula 1: Mercedes pull off feat not accomplished since 1988
By Asher Fair
Mercedes pulled off a historic feat that had not been accomplished since the 1988 Formula 1 season by winning the Canadian Grand Prix.
Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton controversially earned his third consecutive Formula 1 victory and his fifth victory through the first seven races of the season when Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was issued a five-second time penalty toward the end of the Canadian Grand Prix, stripping him of what would have been his first victory of the season.
As a result, Mercedes have now won each of the 21-race season’s first seven races. Hamilton also won the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Chinese Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Monaco Grand Prix while teammate Valtteri Bottas won the Australian Grand Prix and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
With Hamilton’s victory in the season’s sixth race, the Monaco Grand Prix, Mercedes tied the mark that they set back in the 2014 season with six consecutive victories to start the season for the most consecutive victories to start a season in 31 seasons.
Now Mercedes have earned more victories to start a season than any team since McLaren opened up the 1988 season with an all-time record 11 consecutive victories.
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Driving for McLaren at the time were Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Senna won seven of the season’s first 11 races while Prost won the other four. Senna finished the 16-race season as the champion with eight victories while Prost finished with seven.
The only other two seasons in Formula 1 history during which a team began with seven consecutive victories were the 1952 season and the 1953 season. Ferrari started both of these season’s with seven-race winning streaks, although there is an argument against these streaks being considered true seven-race winning streaks.
The Indianapolis 500 was still a part of the Formula 1 schedule back then. While none of the drivers competing for the Formula 1 championship competed in that race in either season, it was still considered the second race on the schedule, and it was won by Kuzma in the 1952 season and Kurtis Kraft in the 1953 season.
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How many more races will Mercedes win before another team, likely Ferrari or Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, become just the second team to win a race in the 2019 Formula 1 season? The French Grand Prix, which Lewis Hamilton dominated last season, is the next race on the schedule, and it is scheduled to take place on Sunday, June 23 at 9:10 a.m. ET. ESPN2 is set to air the live broadcast of this race from Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France.