Mercedes will attempt to become just the second team after Ferrari to win five consecutive world championship doubles at this weekend’s Brazilian GP.
With Lewis Hamilton clinching the team’s fifth successive drivers’ title in Mexico, Mercedes have a chance to wrap up another constructors’ crown at Interlagos ahead of Ferrari – a feat which would see them equal a significant F1 record held by their biggest rivals.
“I really want to win this constructors’ title for the team,” Hamilton told Sky F1. “It really means the world to the team.
“My sole goal now is to try and win these next two races and give them that.”
Mercedes hold a 55-point advantage and need to be 43 points ahead by end of Sunday’s race to clinch the teams’ championship with a race to spare.
That means Ferrari must outscore Mercedes by 13 points to extend the fight on to the season finale in Abu Dhabi on November 25.
Ferrari have outscored Mercedes in each of the last two races to stay in the hunt – by 12 points in Austin and 11 points in Mexico – but require an even stronger weekend in Brazil to take it down to the wire.
The Brazilian GP is exclusively live on Sky Sports this weekend. Sunday’s race begins at 5.10pm – and is also being broadcast on Sky One.
History beckons for Mercedes
While Ferrari’s overall record of six Constructors’ Championship victories in a row (1999-2004) is safe for at least 12 months, Mercedes can match the Scuderia’s impressive run of five consecutive Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships doubles.
Ferrari secured a clean sweep of titles between 2000 and 2004 with Michael Schumacher spearheading their challenge on the track in what stands as the longest period of dominance in F1.
Mercedes’ unbeaten run started in 2014 when the Brackley team emerged as the grid’s strongest force following the introduction of V6 turbo engines.
Hamilton keen to secure fifth double
Hamilton has twice previously wrapped the title up before the final round – with three races to spare in 2015 and two races left in 2017 – but has never won any of those subsequent five races, with his team-mates instead winning four of them.
However, after finishing only third and fourth respectively in the US-Mexico double header, Hamilton said: “I have no idea why I struggled so much in these last two and we all feel the pain of not winning those races and we still have the Constructors’ Championship to win, which I know will mean even more to all the guys back at the factory.”
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