Formula 1: If Mercedes are to be stopped, it needs to be in Austria

The Austrian Grand Prix is slated to present by far the best opportunity of the 2019 Formula 1 season for Ferrari and/or Red Bull Racing to stop Mercedes.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport are set to enter tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix, the ninth of 21 race on the 2019 Formula 1 schedule, at the Red Bull Ring on a 10-race winning streak going back to the end of last season.

Additionally, among their eight victories in the first eight races of the 2019 season are six 1-2 finishes. They are one win away from tying the all-time longest winning streak in Formula 1 history, which was set by McLaren when they won 11 consecutive races to start the 1988 season.

But following the qualifying session for this 71-lap race around the 10-turn, 2.683-mile (4.318-kilometer) Red Bull Ring road course in Spielberg, Styria, Austria, Mercedes may very well truly be the underdogs, a role that they have attempted to play for pretty much the whole season even as heavy favorites.

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This means one thing: if the Silver Arrows are to be stopped, it must be at the Red Bull Ring.

Formula 1, particularly Scuderia Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, cannot afford to see Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas take the checkered flag in tomorrow’s race after the weekend that they have had thus far to put themselves in position to prevent an 11th consecutive Mercedes victory.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the pole position for this race ahead of Hamilton in second place, but Hamilton may very well be hit with a three-position grid penalty for impeding the progress of Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen during the second round of qualifying for the race.

If Hamilton ends up being penalized, Leclerc would share the front row with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in second place.

Bottas would start in third place as the top Mercedes driver in what would be their first race with no drivers on the front row since Ferrari locked out the front row for the season’s second race, the Bahrain Grand Prix, only to have that race slip away from them and result in a Mercedes 1-2 finish.

Is this to say that if Mercedes win this race, they won’t lose a race throughout the rest of the season?

Absolutely not.

But as far as the competition among the top three teams is concerned, this is by far as non-Mercedes-dominated and even as it has been all year long, and if they do manage to come out on top once again, it’s hard to picture them being stopped in the near future given the upcoming tracks on the schedule and given the momentum it would take away from Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.

Will Mercedes finally be stopped for the first time in the 2019 Formula 1 season in tomorrow’s Austrian Grand Prix, or will they make history with their 11th consecutive victory despite the strength that Ferrari and Red Bull Racing have shown so far this weekend? Tune in to ESPN2 tomorrow at 9:10 a.m. ET for the live broadcast of this race from the Red Bull Ring to find out.