With another championship on the shelves, this calls for a celebration

Even when Red Bull was at their most dominant the team did not see the same kind of domination that the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team in the 2015 Formula 1 season. If it wasn’t Lewis Hamilton jumping onto the top step all smiles then it is team mate Nico Rosberg taking over for the week.

There was no stopping the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team from winning the 2015 Constructor’s Championship. With 18 pole-positions and 16 wins under their car’s fenders the competitors had found it hard to keep up. While Mercedes did not break their 2014 record of 16 wins they did go one up with 12 one-two finishes breaking their 2014 record.

2015 was the team’s most successful season yet since their return to the sport in 2010. They’ve excelled in every aspect including reliability with only one DNF for world champion Lewis Hamilton with his worst finish in sixth place in the Hungarian Grand Prix. This earned Hamilton his third world championship.

Lewis Hamilton is only the second British driver to have bagged three championships in his career, a record previously held by Sir Jackie Stewart.

To celebrate the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team and Lewis Hamilton’s success, Petronas has invited both the World Champion and Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsports, Toto Wolff to the Esplanade KLCC for the Petronas Winning Formula Experience (WFE) that happened throughout the closing race in Abu Dhabi.

Featuring the Mercedes F1 team’s Petronas Trackside Laboratory, a Pit Stop Challenge complete with the F1 pit engineers as mentors and an Oculus Rift F1 race, the exhibition invites fans to join in the fun and experience the celebrations with the team. There was even a stage set up to air the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix live throughout the four days the festival ran.

On the final day Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff was on hand to present the trophy the team has collected from Abu Dhabi to Petronas Executive Vice President and CEO of Downstream Business Encik Md Arif Mahmood, signalling an end to another triumphant campaign for 2015.

The Petronas WFE drew over 3000 visitors during the four days it was held, with fans lining up to get short hands-on lessons from the Pit Engineers flown in direct from Brackley, UK, on how to change a tyre within two seconds, and trying their hand on racing an F1 car in the Oculus Rift section. The younger crowd also had their fun at the Petrosains exhibits and the Petronas simulators.

Congratulations to the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team on their record breaking win! There is still 68 days to the start of the new season, be sure to tune in to the race to find out if the team would continue their winning streak!

Jerrica Leong