2015 Formula One Australian Grand Prix

[Tony Holder]

And Toto has said in Malaysia they will be stronger. *shudders*

 

[Dux]

Looking at Red Bulls 4 year domination...

2010: Vettel wins the WDC by 4 points from Fernando Alonso, with the final race of the season deciding the championship after Alonso comes into it with a points lead. McLaren finish 44 points behind in the constructors championship. Vettel wins 5 races, Alonso wins 5 races, Webber wins 4 races, Hamilton wins 3 races, Button wins 2. No domination from Red Bull. 4 point WDC win is NOT domination.
2011: Vettel dominates from the start, winning 11 races and taking the WDC by 122 points from Button. Red Bull (Vettel) domination.
2012: Vettel wins the WDC by THREE points. It comes down to the last race again, with Alonso being able to take the WDC. Red Bull wins the WDC by 60 points, primarily because Webber does better than Massa, however Webber is 6th in the WDC with both Ferraris and both McLaren's beating him. Vettel takes 5 wins, Alonso takes 3, Hamilton 3, Button 3, Webber 2 and Rosberg 1. No Red Bull domination. 3 points WDC win is NOT domination.
2013: Vettel wins 4 of the first 10 races, but we still have 5 different winners in the first 10 races, only one of those winners drives a Red Bull. No Red Bull domination for half a season. Then Vettel wins 9 of 9 races in the second half of the season and VETTEL dominates, while Webber manages to scrape 3rd in the WDC.

What can we take from this?
Well, Red Bull "dominated" for 1.5 seasons at most during its 4 year run of victories. These were non-consecutive seasons, with each period of "domination" broken up by a period where they barely won the WDC and were not that far ahead in the constructors championship. Given that Mercedes are almost guaranteed to dominate for at least the first half of this season, the period of Mercedes DOMINATION will easily match the entire Red Bull domination during the last FOUR years in only 1.5 years.
People seem to forget that Vettel won 2 of his 4 championships by less than the points difference between 1st and 2nd. They just see 4 championships in a row and a run of 9 races at the end of it and think "4 years of domination". It wasn't. You know it wasn't, you just seem to ignore the fact you know it wasn't 4 years of domination. People even ignore the fact that in 2013 there were 5 winners in 10 races.
THAT ISN'T DOMINATION.

Discuss.