Motorsport’s two and four-wheeled grand prix world championships look set to be a cakewalk for one rider and one team respectively.
In MotoGP, Spanish sensation Marc Marquez scored his sixth win from six races in 2014 at the Italian Grand Prix last weekend.
Only injury will stop last season’s rookie world champion going back-to-back. At Mugello, Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo pushed Marquez all the way, but it appeared inevitable that the championship leader would prevail in the end.
Teammate Dani Pedrosa, the only rider with the same factory Honda equipment as Marquez, has been plagued by an arm injury and is seemingly distracted by talk of his future options. Even a fully fit Pedrosa would struggle to get near the elbow-scrapping Marquez.
Aside from Lorenzo and Pedrosa, Marquez has few genuine rivals. Valentino Rossi is the only other rider with the equipment needed to challenge, but beating Marquez head-to-head looks beyond the 35-year-old, who seems content collecting podiums.
As Rossi found at Le Mans in France, where he was leading by a comfortable margin only to be hauled in by a recovering Marquez, the Spaniard has the confidence and killer instinct to dominate.
Marquez is still only 21 and just over a season into his MotoGP career so, worryingly for his opponents, he could still find some gains in the coming races and seasons. Nothing is certain in motorbike racing, where crashes are common and injuries a real possibility. But if Marquez can stay upright and keep fit, he could very well surpass the dominant streaks of Mick Doohan and Rossi before him.
Over in Formula One, the Mercedes AMG Petronas have also won the first six grands prix of 2014. Such has been their domination, only a mechanical failure for Lewis Hamilton at the Australian Grand Prix stopped the team from recording a one-two in each race.
The Mercedes engine has a significant advantage over its Renault and Ferrari rivals, having committed early to the development of their 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engine powerplant.
With a sizeable margin over nearest competitor Red Bull Racing, Mercedes could come closest to replicating McLaren’s near-perfect season of 1988, in which Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won all but one of the 16 races that year. Unless Renault and Ferrari can make significant gains with their engines, not easy at this stage of development, Mercedes may only be beaten by team infighting.
The simmering tensions between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are genuine, irrespective of reported peace talks between the two following a tense Monaco Grand Prix.
As the battle for the championship heats up between the two, some type of inter-team clash seems inevitable. This could be the only chance a non-Mercedes driver has of winning a grand prix this season.
Both Marquez and Mercedes can ease their way to their respective championships with the margin to the rest allowing them to take a no-risk approach. What price a clean sweep for both in 2014? Unforeseen circumstances aside, it’s hard to see them being beaten in a straight fight.
The real question is, which riders and teams will step up to take the fight to the dominators in 2015?
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