Bernie: Merc saved us from lousy season

Bernie Ecclestone believes the 2014 Formula 1 season would have been a lousy one had it not been for the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Mercedes swept all before them this year with the team winning 16 of the 19 grands prix en route to winning the Constructors’ Championship with Hamilton victorious in 11 races to take the Drivers’ crown. The team were also in dominant form in qualifying as they claimed 18 pole positions.

Just looking at the statistics would make it a very boring season, but Merc’ decision to allow Hamilton and Rosberg to go wheel to wheel made things interesting and it meant the title was only decided in the final race in Abu Dhabi.

Ecclestone believes the intra-team battle proved to be the saving grace for F1 this year.

“If we hadn’t been lucky with Nico and Lewis racing each other and one of them had got away and been dominant, the season would have been over by Silverstone,” he said in the Formula 1 Season Review 2014.

“I thought perhaps Ferrari or Red Bull or one of the other teams would catch up halfway through the season and make up a few points at the end. We’ve been extremely lucky with what happened, these two guys have been racing each other and it’s good that Mercedes allowed them to do that.

“If not, we would have had a really lousy Championship.”