For all the talk of rivals catching Mercedes, which has held fire on its more significant upgrades until next weekend's Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, the Brackley team has been able to weather the storm by excelling on some of the most power sensitive circuits like Monza and Baku, vindicating its patience.
But while Mercedes' dominant power unit package helps explain its gap to Ferrari and Red Bull, George Russell's scarcely believable eight-tenth gap to McLaren's Oscar Piastri was less straightforward to digest. Lando Norris fared even worse, 1.1s behind in Baku qualifying.
