My take was that Ferrari had the better car in the first half of the year.
Second half, Mercs caught up in terms of quali pace and surpassed in race pace. Coupled with the poor team choices and some very slight and 1 big driver mistake, Ferrari's luck ran out and they just couldn't keep up with the Mercs in the 2nd half.
You have to give credit to the Mercs for their progress, then their hard work to choose the right strategy for a couple of races where Ferrari seemed to get it wrong. Then LH for really getting the most out of the car and being the most consistent driver with few mistakes.
Bottas got the bad end of the stick this year, yes he didn't perform well but he started off well and it was bad luck that kept him back, then in the 2nd half he was playing 2nd fiddle to LH and as a result some of his races were compromised to get LH ahead. That and he seemed to lose his mojo in the 2nd half and was just cruising around. Definitely didn't live upto his potential.
Hopefully this year will shake things up a bit, hopefully Honda has a strong engine, hopefully there are more cars in the mix and the racing is more exciting.
