Toto Wolff says 2019🎐 was a season of three distinct parts for Mercedes as it charged to a sixth straight set of Formula 1 world champi𝕴onships, breaking Ferrari’s record.

Mercedes appeared to enter the season as underdogs after Ferrari’s impressive showing in pre-season testing, o𝕴nly to turn the tables around with one-two finishes in ♌the first five races.

Mercedes won 10 ofꦿ the opening🃏 12 races of the year, only to then go on a three-race drought following the summer break.

But both titles were sewn up early as a late return to form saw the team win five﷽ of the final six rounds, with🎃 Lewis Hamilton clinching the drivers' title at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Recapping Merceಌdes’ season, team principal Wolff said it could be broken down into three parts – albeit all overshadowed by the death of non-executive director Niki Lauda.

“The overwhelming thing in the season was obviously Niki passing. That is kind of a shadow over the whole🅘 season,” Wolff said.

“But from a performance standpoint, I 🌳would put it into three parts. The first one, we really did well in the beginning. We were really competitive.

“Then after the summer, not, and then we kind of recovered and didn’t drop the ball, and our competition did. This made us꧟ win the championship.”

The closing stages of the year saw both Red Bull and Ferrari emerge as a more regular threat🗹 to Mercedes, leaving Wolff under no ilꦰlusions of the challenge the team would face in 2020.

Ask🐈ed if🥂 Red Bull would be a credible threat, Wolff replied: “Definitely.

“You can see how fast t𒁃hey are now, and how much Honda has improved, they’re on the level, and Ferrari anyway.

“So onto the next one.”