2018 Preview : Mitchell

Ever since their debut back in 1987, Mitchell have been a team that were mostly stuck in the midfield with a few podium finishes here and there. 2010 was the turning point with two young drivers in Sebastien Buemi and Nico Hulkenberg making the most of a highly competitive car, taking 12 pole positions and four wins amongst themselves on the way to 3rd in the Teams Championship. That season then set up the foundations to challenge for a championship win that had been a long time coming.

Best Season: 2016

Heading into 2016, the closest Mitchell had gotten to a championship challenge was the aforementioned 2010 season. They had arguably the best car over one lap, but a more unreliable car than Shake ‘n’ Bake and Tornado Motorsport prevented championship glory. Furthermore, Hulkenberg’s form was rather erratic as despite seven pole positions, he qualified on the back row three times. Even so, he remained with the team for a further five seasons before the relationship eventually soured to the point where he was on the move for 2016. Taking his place was three time champion Lewis Hamilton, who was forced to endure a miserable season with an underperforming Exolite. During pre-season testing, it was clear that Mitchell had a very competitive car underneath them, topping four of the six sessions at Sakhir and Kyalami, and they justified this with two double podium finishes in the first three races including a dominant 1-2 at the Nurburgring.

Two more podium finishes followed at Mugello and Aragon before Cooper Lee had his moment of glory at Monaco after acing the race set-up, but the ever present threat of Tornado and FJR meant that Mitchell couldn’t relax. Montreal was a low point with Hamilton being spun round during the first lap and Lee throwing away a certain 2nd in the closing stages. Another difficult race at Spielberg followed before Hamilton began a run of six consecutive podium finishes including two wins at the Hungaroring and Portimao. He should’ve made it three wins at Hockenheim but inexplicably went off track at the Agipkurve on the final lap, handing the win to Kevin Magnussen. In the final four races, Hamilton’s championship started to unravel with mechanical failures at Sepang and Sakhir and an anonymous run to 8th at Suzuka, and heading into the final race, the inaugural running at Macau, Hamilton held a five point lead over Sergio Perez, but it was the Mexican who crumbled under the pressure by crashing into the barriers at Lisboa. Free from pressure, Hamilton went on to finish 2nd and win a record-equalling fourth Drivers Championship.

Worst Season: 1992

The beginning of the 90s technological era left the 11 participating teams wondering how to plan out their next two seasons. Do they look to enhance the performance of their car with active suspension and a semi-automatic gearbox, or do they build funds for the following season in the hopes of getting good drivers? Mitchell went down the latter option and it resulted in a disastrous season. Pre-season looked promising enough with a works Renault engine and the exciting Jean Alesi at their disposal, but testing showed a different story with a lack of pace from a car that just wasn’t up to scratch. In the races, everything that could’ve gone wrong did with neither Alesi nor Erik Comas scoring a single point. A driver swap for Alesi with Derek Warwick with three races remaining made no difference and the team finished last in the championship behind JGR Meister on countback. Furthermore, their approach for 1993 didn’t pay off as despite hiring Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill, Mitchell failed to score a single podium finish.

Present day

Having started off strongly with three wins in the first three races, Mitchell’s 2017 championship challenge gradually came undone thanks to Tornado’s superior race pace and reliability. As the season went on, Mitchell shifted focused on as many pole positions as possible with Lewis Hamilton setting a new record with 39, two more than Ayrton Senna and Fernando Alonso. However, this could prove to be their undoing for 2018. They’ve chosen to keep hold of their 2016 chassis and run a C-spec model, and last season revealed that their aerodynamics were lagging behind all but one of the other teams. As aerodynamic development won’t be as pronounced compared to later chassis models, Mitchell may well be in for a tough season.

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