Tech highlights

By Giorgio Piola and Matt Somerfield

The W07 is no doubt a technical marvel, the last in a great lineage of cars to come from the technical regulations that commenced in 2014. Had the Mercedes teammates not collided in Spain and what seemed to be a cruising Hamilton not suffered an engine failure in Malaysia, this is a car that would have won all 21 races of F1's longest-ever season.

In 2016, Mercedes brought to life not only its own design ideas but incorporated many solutions we've seen in the past and on other challengers this season, as the team unloaded update after update in the opening rounds and continued to refine the W07 late into the season.

Multi-element, serrated surfaces were the order of the day as the team pushed the limits of what is possible within the dimensional constraints, starting right from the front wing all the way to the rear wing.

Mercedes W07 aerodynamic features, detailed Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Season ratings

Jon Noble - 10

Although the opposition was closer to Mercedes in pace terms this year, improved consistency and an impressive development push delivered its most successful season so far. It was clearly pushing things to the limit – as Lewis Hamilton's reliability dramas showed – but it came through the huge internal headaches of the Spain and Austria collisions to leave us with an exciting (albeit controversial) finale.

Oleg Karpov – 10

It's easy to underestimate what Mercedes team did this year, but its record is really impressive. You don't need words to describe the team's success, just look at the numbers. Hats off to Toto Wolff, Niki Lauda and Paddy Lowe for not letting the conflict between drivers to escalate after the Barcelona and Austria crashes and still allowing them race.

Glenn Freeman – 9

Without Nico Rosberg's engine mode error that led to the Spanish GP clash and Lewis Hamilton's Malaysian GP engine failure, Mercedes would have enjoyed a whitewash. To come that close to perfection in the third season of a set of regulations is a testament to everything the team has achieved, and it reflects pretty poorly on everyone else.

Kate Walker – 9

What can you say about Mercedes except that the team excelled for a third year running? Bulletproof reliability on one side of the garage, and despite a miserable start to the season for Lewis Hamilton the Silver Arrows were able to claim both constructor and driver titles (again), the latter honours going to Nico Rosberg, who delivered consistent results capped off by a stunning weekend in Singapore. Let's not mention Barcelona, Austria, or Malaysia. It's for the best...

Pablo Elizalde – 9

There was no surprise this year and, as expected, Mercedes concluded the hybrid era (before the regulation changes) as it had started it: dominating. Aside from the problems with Hamilton's car, the team had another fantastic year during which it appeared to not only maintain the gap over its rivals, but to also increase it as more and more teams shifted focus to 2017.

Guillaume Navarro – 10

It is remarkable that Mercedes has kept up with the standards it had been establishing since the start of the hybrid era and kept such an edge on its rivals for the power units' third season. The team is a complex structure, though well-organised. It's attractive for other teams' employees, like James Allison, while fulfilling for Mercedes members. The team also understood how important it was, for its public image, to let its drivers fight each other for the world championship. Remarkable.

Erwin Jaeggi – 9

Mercedes dominated once again with the team winning 19 out of 21 races. And just like in previous seasons Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were battling it out for the title, although this time we got a different outcome. Unfortunately for Lewis the amount of technical problems didn't equal out over the course of the season, but this did give us some entertaining races, with a Mercedes having battle through to the front and a title fight that wasn't decided until the very end. Red Bull and Ferrari were getting closer this year though, which makes you wonder how things would have panned out in 2017 if the regulations were to remain stable.

Jacobo Vega - 10

Mercedes completed a really strong three-year period. The W07 was the culmination - one of the fastest and most dominant, if not the most dominant, cars in F1 history and the team did the best job on the grid. Question remain, since 2014, over the Mercedes' management of its drivers. I think it was Mercedes' weakest point, along with strategy choices when it was pushed by its rivals, but the team has overall done a great and impressive job!

Final score: 9.50/10