The Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid, originally known as the Mercedes F1 W05, was a highly successful Mercedes-Benz Formula One racing car designed and developed under the direction of Bob Bell, Aldo Costa, Geoff Willis, Loïc Serra, Russell Cooley, John Owen, Mike Elliott and Jarrod Murphy to compete in the 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship. The cars were driven by World Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, both of whom remained with the team for a second and fifth season, respectively. The F1 W05 was designed to use Mercedes's new 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged engine, the PU106A Hybrid.
The chassis was named "F1 W05 Hybrid" to represent the fifth Formula One car that Mercedes had constructed since , while the hybrid was marked to recognize the utilization of fully integrated hybrid power units. The car made its competitive debut at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, the opening round of the 2014 season. After participating in 18 rounds of Grand Prix racing, the car made its final competition appearance at the season finale race – the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, before retirement. As the first Mercedes F1 car of the hybrid era of the sport, this was the car that kick-started an unparalleled period of dominance by Mercedes in the sport that lasted for eight years, delivering 81 Grand Prix wins for Hamilton, 20 for Rosberg (until 2016) and 10 (from 2017) for Valtteri Bottas. It became the second Mercedes F1 car to win the drivers' title in 59 years and the first to win the constructors' title.
Competitiveness and performance
The car was an instant success, with Nico Rosberg winning the season-opening by 27 seconds. Lewis Hamilton went on to win the , , and successively. The car was said to be so dominant because of an innovative design feature on the PU106A, the car's engine. Sky Sports F1 reported that the compressor and turbo were packaged at opposite ends of the internal combustion engine, which gave them the edge in packaging, aerodynamic efficiency, and battery usage. Lewis Hamilton described it as the best car he has ever driven.
At the halfway point of the season, Mercedes had secured all but one win – in Canada, won by the Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo – and one pole, when Williams driver Felipe Massa did so in Austria. This came after Hamilton won the and Rosberg won the Monaco, Austrian and German Grands Prix. The team clinched the Constructors' Championship at the , the 16th race of the season. In the nineteen races, the F1 W05 Hybrid took sixteen wins (eleven for Hamilton and five for Rosberg), eighteen pole positions (seven for Hamilton and eleven for Rosberg), twelve fastest laps (seven for Hamilton and five for Rosberg), twelve front row lockouts and eleven 1–2 finishes.
Season summary
The form the F1 W05 Hybrid enjoyed from the start of the season to the , was the most dominant performance in the first four races of the season in the history of the sport. The car qualified on pole for each race, led every racing lap, won every race, and set every fastest lap. At the fifth race of the season, the , the car led every lap with both Hamilton (from pole) and Rosberg leading for portions of the race, but Sebastian Vettel recorded the fastest lap. The car claimed every pole, led every lap, and won every race in the season up to the . The F1 W05 Hybrid's streak ended at the where Daniel Ricciardo beat Nico Rosberg to the win, after the car's motor generator unit for kinetic energy (MGU-K) failed. Felipe Massa ended the F1 W05 Hybrid's streak of pole positions during qualifying for the , but Mercedes would regain their form, with a 1–2 result, despite concerns of brake issues and threat from the Williams duo of Massa and Valtteri Bottas.