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Red Bull

In less than a week's time, we will know who is the Formula One World Drivers' Champion and the Constructors' Champion for 2021.

When the teams pack up after the race in Abu Dhabi it will mark the end of multiple eras.

But there's a surprising history behind the two teams that are battling for the honours in a season that should not have been.

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The Styrian Grand Prix was very misleading. It looked processional, almost pedestrian. But it was far from that. Equally importantly, it wasn't a race of pit-stop strategies. Yes, there were some tyre management strategies employed - and if they demonstrated anything it was that, in general, it doesn't matter what tyres are used in which order and, equally, it isn't critical if drivers burn the tyres early in a stint or at the end. In fact, the only thing about tyres was whether they would determine a one or two stop race.

What really matters is that Red Bull and their soon-to-be-former engine supplier Honda have quietly gone about producing a car that is faster and handles better than the Mercedes. At the Red Bull Ring, Hamilton implied that his only hope for a win was that it would rain. It didn't.

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There's an old story of the boy who cried wolf: he told villagers that a wolf was coming so often that, when it was true, no one believed him. Mercedes have the opposite problem: they have been so dominant for so long that they could rely on Hamilton's genius and a rock-solid car to win race after race, championship after championship, break record after record.

Nothing in Formula One is easy but getting a great start and bolting out of reach, for so long Mercedes' stock in trade, has made it look simple. And they have been complacent.

It seems that they have failed to develop the thing that wins races when there are competitors: they don't know how to build winning strategies.

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It's the year that shouldn't have been and Mercedes are having a tough 2021. What's going on?

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Hamilton won, Rosberg was second. Then it all got a bit muddled. Now the a third driver has been awarded third place. If the shoe fits...

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Some say that Mark Webber is the unluckiest man in F1. That's wrong: he's one of the unluckiest men in any sport. But it's also true that one makes one's own luck.

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The official word from Red Bull Racing is that Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have "settled" the issue that arose when Vettel ignored team orders in Malaysia and took away Webber's victory. But as always, the devil is in the detail.

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The most fun of the weekend in Malaysia was not the (rather sad) race weekend concert but when Lewis Hamilton forgot that he's changed teams and is now driving for Mercedes. The McLaren pit crew who watched him pull in between the lines - with tyres ready - waited patiently while he worked out his error and set off for his own box further down the pit lane. No one else had anything to smile about, including eventual winner, Vettel. He broke team orders to stay behind Webber but says "you know I’m not sorry to win."

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