The wider significance of Mercedes’ back-to-back F1 wins

Lewis Hamilton was pretty open about the emotional importance of his British Grand Prix triumph after 945 days without a Formula 1 victory.

And while the ghosts of Abu Dhabi 2021 may never truly be banished, at least the fear of never winning again following all the controversy of that evening has been laid to rest.

But there is also a statistical significance to what Mercedes did at the British Grand Prix because it is the first time since the exact same closing stage of 2021 that it has managed back-to-back wins.

In the current era of Red Bull dominance, it has been slim pickings for the Milton Keynes-based team’s opposition, with its rivals mostly only coming away with one-off wins, like Carlos Sainz in Singapore last year.

You have to go back to the 2022 British/Austrian GP to find the most recent non-Red Bull back-to-back wins when Sainz and Charles Leclerc delivered victories at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring in what ultimately proved to be the final flashes of potential from that year’s Ferrari before the RB18 hit its stride.

For Mercedes, its only previous victory in this ground effect era before George Russell’s triumph in Austria a few weeks ago was the Briton’s success in Brazil 2022 – which ultimately proved to mark a false dawn for the squad in feeling it had finally made a breakthrough in understanding its car.

To find its most recent successive triumphs, the calendar has to be rolled back to the end of 2021 and Hamilton’s own last wins before Silverstone, when he rolled off consecutive victories in Brazil, Qatar and Saudi Arabia ahead of the infamous season showdown in Abu Dhabi.

But while the headline successes point to Mercedes getting back to its best in F1, there is also a bigger picture at play – and that is how the shift in the competitive form of the top four teams could well now shake up the constructors’ championship situation.

In fact, the teams’ battle is a particularly fascinating one because F1 is currently witnessing a situation where the two top teams are not delivering as much as those chasing then.

Red Bull’s constructors’ tally is being hurt by Sergio Perez’s repeated non-scores, while Ferrari has lost its way as the result of a terrible Canadian GP and issues with a floor upgrade it brought to the Spanish GP.

In contrast, McLaren has emerged as a…