OP, welcome to F1 and what a 1st question to answer
I've been involved in the design of F1 cars that have finished in every position of the constructors championship and nearly every position (only missing a 1st and 10th place) of the drivers championship.
One of my favourite projects was being responsible for the design of everything needed to make the Ferrari pit stop as fast as it could possibly be done when the pit stops went to 'no fuel' and tyre change only. Learned a lot, was great fun but made watching each race quite stressful. Would love to apply this knowledge/way of thinking to something worthwhile like a battlefield or operating theater scenario but I've never looked into it. Maybe one day when I get bored of working in F1 I'll see if anyone wants my help.
Not seen everything in F1 but seen a lot, could write a book on my experiences of winning and mostly losing in F1 but it would be a mind numbing read.
Firstly an F1 car are the most technically advanced, complex, fastest (on a road course) and expensive cars racing. Nothing comes close, if I had to chose the closest related race car it would be the last of the works LMP1 cars.
Only spec parts are tyres and FIA sensors/data logging boxes and few other non-performance parts. The big teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, Redbull and Renault, nearly every single component of the car is bespoke for each team, even down to some of the materials used in the manufacture of parts. The other teams are supported in varying ways sharing parts like the power unit, gearbox, rear suspension and other parts allowed within the rules.
The big teams like Ferrari and Mercedes have around 2000 people and have operated on annual budgets approaching $0.5 billion. This has been scaled back in recent years but to show the contrast the smaller teams operated on less down to under $100 million and under 500 people. The difference sounds a lot but only adds up to 2 or 3 secs difference per lap.
In a nut shell I think Mercedes are the dominate team (for now
) for a number of reasons, I've tried to list the most effective first in respect to improving the odds of winning
Teamwork, to continuously win in F1 everything needs to be right on the limit of the performance envelope as time is performance. This is from how quickly parts can be designed, analysed, manufactured, assembled, lab tested and track tested. Everyone single person needs to work as part of a team as the weakest link ultimately sets the performance pace of the team. Another aspect of team work where Mercedes wins is they don't hide from their problems or apportion blame. They lay open the problem and work out a fix and how to stop a repeat failure
Money, this buys you resources, equipment, people and time. Time being the most valuable, The more time you have the more ways you can find ways of doing things wrong so you find the magic way to do it right. Money buys the best materials, testing, design iterations, validation methods, processes, strategy methods, track to wind tunnel correlation etc, etc It doesn't buy the best people but it does help. One aspect of performance money buys which is seldom mentioned is 'attention to detail' in every aspect of adding performance to the car ie saving every single gram of weight, making every single part as close to the limit of failure as practically possible.
People, from the fastest driver which Hamilton is one of them, to the best designers, aerodynamists, manufacturing, marketing, race crew, mangers/leaders. Mercedes certainly doesn't have the best person in every role but they make the best of more peoples strengths than any other team.
Experience, this is vital, experience of working together as well of experience of doing things different ways and most importantly experience of the different ways of getting things wrong so you find the best ways of getting it right
Continuity, knowing how the other guy in the team thinks/works ie how he's going to do something even before he's done it. Also processes that are continuously refined/adapted as the game changes. When everything is on the limit of failure, things will go wrong, if they don't you're not pushing the limits enough. When someone over steps the limit, the best reaction is to pick them up, dust them off and carry on, that person will come back stronger, the team becomes stronger as people know pushing the limit won't cost them their job. This is an aspect of a successful F1 team that can't be under estimated.
Sure I've missed out many aspects but hopefully this help to explain in some way why Mercedes are winning all the time